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Suicide Prevention Basics

Data

The resources on this page can serve as an introduction to data and statistics on suicide in the United States. For more information about finding data (especially local and state), see Finding Data on Suicidal Behavior. For information on finding data on specific topics or populations, visit the Data and Statistics collection in the SPRC Online Library.

CDC National Suicide Statistics at a Glance
Web pages that provide an overview of suicide trends and patterns in the US, including: mortality data on leading causes of death and suicide rates by county, age, sex and race/ethnicity; case-fatality rates for self-harm injuries; information on suicides by associated circumstances for the 16 participating NVDRS states; and Youth Risk Behavior Survey System data on prevalence of suicide thoughts, plans, and attempts among high school students.

NVDRS: National Violent Death Reporting System
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) database, which includes information on deaths resulting from homicide, suicide, legal intervention, deaths of undetermined intent, and unintentional deaths involving firearms. It is based on a surveillance system that collects information from law enforcement, coroners and medical examiners, vital statistics and crime laboratories. As of fall 2005, CDC provides funding to 17 states to participate in NVDRS data reporting system. A recent report summarizes suicide and homicide data for 2003-2004.

Self-inflicted Injury/Suicide FastStats
A web-based resource from the National Center for Health Statistics, which includes numbers and rates of suicide deaths and links to other Federal information and sources of data on suicide.

SPRC National Suicide Data sheet
A fact sheet of national data on suicide and self-inflicted injury, including data by age, race/ethnicity, gender, method and cost. (PDF)

SPRC State Suicide Data
Each state page has a section on state suicide data, including these fact sheets with data on suicide and attempts resulting in hospitalization, and the costs of medical care and lost work time connected with suicides and suicide attempts.

Suicide Statistics Archive 1996-2004
Suicide data sheets based on information gathered by the National Center for Health Statistics. Each includes information on suicide numbers and rates, as well as presentations of this data by ethnicity, gender, age, and state. Extrapolations by suicide per minute and hour are also included.

Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors Among Adults (2008)
In 2008, an estimated 8.3 million adults aged 18 or older (3.7 percent of the adult population) had serious thoughts of suicide in the past year; 2.3 million (1.0 percent) made a suicide plan; and, 1.1 million (0.5 percent) attempted suicide. Of the adults who attempted suicide in the past year, 62.3 percent received medical attention for their suicide attempts, and 46.0 percent stayed overnight or longer in a hospital for their suicide attempts.

WISQARS: Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System
An interactive system providing injury-related mortality data (including data on suicides and self-inflicted injuries) as mortality reports, leading causes of death reports, and years of potential life lost reports. These reports can be generated by state, age group, and ethnicity. WISQARS can generate similar data tables for nonfatal injuries.

YRBSS: Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System
The YRBSS was developed to monitor priority health risk behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of death, disability, and social problems among youth and adults in the United States. Conducted biennially since 1991, it draws on representative samples of students in grades 9-12. The survey includes questions about young people who attempted or seriously considered suicide, as well as those who had made a suicide plan or suffered from depression.

If you have any questions about data relating to suicide and suicidal behavior, please contact SPRC at info@sprc.org, or 877-GET-SPRC (877-438-7772).

Last updated on October 9, 2009