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National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center

A Federal resource for professionals, parents and youth working to prevent violence committed by and against young people.

Youth Suicide Facts
(Printable Version)

Suicide was the third leading cause of death for young people 10 to 19 years old in 2000.[1] More teenagers die from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia and influenza, and chronic lung disease combined.[2] In 2000, 1921 young people ages 10 to 19 died by suicide in the United States.[3]

Suicide is relatively rare among youth under fifteen (300 suicide deaths for ten to fourteen year-olds in 2000), but the rate has increased by 70% since 1981.[4] After increasing dramatically in the 1980's, suicide rates among older youth have begun to decline in recent years. In 2000, the suicide rate among 15 to 19 year olds was actually slightly lower than in 1981.

Survey data from 2001 indicate that 19% of high school students had seriously considered attempting suicide, almost 15% had made plans to attempt suicide, and almost 9% had made a suicide attempt during the year preceding the survey.[5]

Which Teens are Most Affected?

Suicide is far more common among some groups of teens than others. Male teens are almost five times more likely than females to die by suicide, even though females are more likely to attempt suicide. While white males account for the majority of youth suicide deaths (60 percent), the suicide rate among Native American male youths is exceedingly high in comparison with the overall rate for males ten to nineteen (16.0 per 100,000 vs. 7.8 per 100,000). Although still relatively low (5.7 per 100,000 in 2000), the suicide rate has been increasing most rapidly among African American males ten to nineteen-doubling over the last twenty years.[6]

Several state and national studies have found that gay, lesbian, and bisexual teens are more likely to seriously consider and attempt suicide than heterosexual teens.[7,8,9]There are, unfortunately, not sufficient data to determine whether rates of death by suicide are similarly elevated. Why are gay, lesbian, and bisexual teens more likely to attempt suicide? The reasons for this are not entirely clear. Research suggests that discrimination due to the social stigmatization of homosexuality in our culture may have important mental health consequences.[10] Gay, lesbian, and bisexual teens are more likely than their peers to report past victimization and problems with substance abuse and depression, all of which are risk factors for suicide in adolescents.[11,12,13]

  1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Data Source: NCHS National Vital Statistics System for numbers of deaths, U.S. Bureau of Census for population estimates. Statistics compiled using WISQARSTM produced by the Office of Statistics and Programming, NCIPC, CDC.
  2. U.S. Public Health Service (1999). The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Prevent Suicide, p. 3. Washington, D.C.
  3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Data Source: NCHS National Vital Statistics System for numbers of deaths, U.S. Bureau of Census for population estimates. Statistics compiled using WISQARSTM produced by the Office of Statistics and Programming, NCIPC, CDC.
  4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Data Source: NCHS National Vital Statistics System for numbers of deaths, U.S. Bureau of Census for population estimates. Statistics compiled using WISQARSTM produced by the Office of Statistics and Programming, NCIPC, CDC.
  5. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2002). Youth risk behavior surveillance - United States, 2001. In: CDC Surveillance Summaries, June 28, 2002. MMWR, 51(SS-4), p. 6.
  6. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Data Source: NCHS National Vital Statistics System for numbers of deaths, U.S. Bureau of Census for population estimates. Statistics compiled using WISQARSTM produced by the Office of Statistics and Programming, NCIPC, CDC.
  7. Russell, S.T. & Joyner, K. (2001). Adolescent sexual orientation and suicide risk: Evidence from a national study. American Journal of Public Health, 91(8), 1276-81.
  8. Remafedi, G. French, S., Story, M, Resnick, M.D., & Blum, R. (1998). The relationship between suicide risk and sexual orientation: results of a population-based study. American Journal of Public Health, 88, 57-60.
  9. Faulkner, A. Cranston, K. (1998). Correlates of same-sex sexual behavior in a random sample of Massachusetts high school students. American Journal of Public Health, 88, 262-266.
  10. Mays,V.M. & Cochran, S.D. (2001). Mental health correlates of perceived discrimination among lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 91(11), 1869-76.
  11. Russell, S.T. & Joyner, K. (2001). Adolescent sexual orientation and suicide risk: Evidence from a national study. American Journal of Public Health, 91(8), 1276-81.
  12. Garofalo, R. Wolf, R.C., Kessel, S. Palfrey, J., DuRant, R.H. (1998). The association between health risk behaviors and sexual orientation among a school-based sample of adolescents. Pediatrics, 101, 895-902.
  13. Gonsiorek, I.C. Mental health issues of gay and lesbian adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health Care, 9, 114-22.