Suicide is the leading cause of death among active duty US soldiers. And it's widely known that suicide is a big problem for veterans, too—but solid statistics have been hard to come by. Now, a new study says that, yes, suicide is a problem for veterans. And for everyone else.

New figures from a VA researcher paint an interesting and somewhat counterintuitive picture of the military veteran suicide problem. Among the findings, via the Washington Post:

Twenty two veterans kill themselves each day.

"More than two-thirds of the veterans who commit suicide are 50 or older," meaning that most of them are veterans of wars other than the latest Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

At the same time, suicide as a whole is increasing in the US, up 11% between 2007-2010. Non-veteran men in their 50s have a suicide rate that's about the same as veteran men in their 50s.

Then again, among more recent veterans: "those who served in recent conflicts are 30 percent to 200 percent more likely to commit suicide than their ­non-veteran peers."

So there is too much suicide among veterans, and, it seems, among non-veterans. More studies are promised to be forthcoming.

[WaPo. Photo: AP]