Rate among women and girls increases more quickly than among men, yet males continued to account for the majority of deaths, according to a new report

US suicides have reached their highest peak in 30 years, with middle-aged Americans making up the largest part of the growing epidemic, according to new federal data.

A report published on Friday by the National Center for Health Statistics found that between 1999 and 2014, the largest increases in suicide were seen among middle-aged men and women 45 to 64 years old, and girls 10 to 14 years old. Older Americans, aged 75 and over, were the only group to see a decline in suicides during the same period.

The suicide rate among women increased more quickly than among men. But men continued to account for the vast majority of deaths in 2014, the latest year for which data is available. The suicide rate among men was 20.7 per 100,000, compared to 5.8 per 100,000 among women.



This new suicide data underpins recent studies that showed a decline in life expectancy among middle-aged, white Americans – especially women. Such studies attributed the increasing death rate to drug and alcohol misuse, as well as suicide. However, the NCHS data did not analyze racial and ethnic differences in suicide.

“We wanted to highlight the growing problem of suicide in America,” said Sally Curtin, lead author on the NCHS report. “Deaths are just the tip of the iceberg. Many more incidents end up as hospitalizations and ER visits.”

Curtin’s report did not identify causes behind the increase in suicide. But a 2013 analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted the recent economic downturn and a vulnerability among baby boomers who had “unusually high suicide rates during their adolescent years” as possible contributing factors to the rising suicide rate for middle-aged adults.

“We don’t really know enough about what’s driving this rise,” said Mark Kaplan, professor of social welfare at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Past research in this field has focused on young people and very old people. But we know far less about what’s causing suicides among the middle age range: 25- to 64-year-olds. We’re only now starting to invest in trying to understand this phenomenon.”

Kaplan, who studies risk factors for suicide among vulnerable populations, noted that a greater emphasis is needed on age- and gender-specific prevention efforts, as well as means restriction programs for guns. Though suicides by firearm declined as a percentage of all deaths between 1999 and 2014, they were still the most common method of death.

Overall, more than 42,000 Americans died from suicide in 2014, and more than 21,000 were firearm-related deaths, according to the NCHS report.



But even the most up-to-date official numbers likely undercount suicides, Kaplan noted. That’s because many suicide deaths may be recorded as accidents in death reports. “The picture is likely even worse than is being officially presented,” he said.

“Suicide is a big problem, but it’s under-resourced and under-funded,” Kaplan said. “Many people don’t realize it’s an important public health problem until reports like this come out, but we should be paying closer attention year-round.”