Facts and Figures
By Gender
| Sex | Number of Suicides | Population | Rate |
| Males | 26,308 | 147,160,189 | 17.9 |
| Females | 6,992 | 151,594,630 | 4.6 |
| Total | 33,300 | 298,754,819 | 11.2 |
Figures from the National Center for Health Statistics for the year 2006.
All rates are per 100,000 population.
A woman takes her own life every 90 minutes in the U.S., but it is estimated that one woman attempts suicide every 78 seconds.
- Women attempt suicide three times as much as men.
- The higher rate of attempted suicide in women is attributed to the elevated rate of mood disorders among females, such as major depression, dysthymia and seasonal affective disorder.
- Although women attempt suicide more often, men complete suicide at a rate four times that of women.
- More women than men report a history of attempted suicide, with a gender ratio of 2:1.
- Firearms are now the leading method of suicide in women, as well as men.
- Suicide is more common among women who are single, recently separated, divorced, or widowed.
- The precipitating life events for women who attempt suicide tend to be interpersonal losses or crises in significant social or family relationships.
- Many women who suffer from manic-depressive illness experience their first episode in the postpartum period.
- Sixty percent to 80 percent of women experience transient depression, and 10 percent to 15 percent of women develop clinical depression during the postpartum period.
- Between the mid-1950s and the late 1970s, the suicide rate among U.S. males aged 15-24 more than tripled (from 6.3 per 100,000 in 1955 to 21.3 in 1977). Among females aged 15-24, the rate more than doubled during this period (from 2.0 to 5.2). The youth suicide rate generally leveled off during the 1980s and early 1990s, and since the mid-1990s has been steadily decreasing.
- The suicide rates for men rise with age, most significantly after age 65.
- The rate of suicide in men 65+ is seven times that of females who are 65+.
- The suicide rates for women peak between the ages of 45-54 years old, and again after age 75.
- Women are more likely than men to have stronger social supports, to feel that their relationships are deterrents to suicide, and to seek psychiatric and medical intervention, which may contribute to their lower rate of completed suicide.
Prevent suicide through early recognition and treatment of depression and other psychiatric illnesses.
