The US suicide rate is up a third since 1999 and still well below its 1908 and 1932 peaks
CDC figures, age adjusted per 100,000: 21.1 in 1908, 21.9 in 1932, 10.5 in 1999, 14.2 in 2018, 14.1 in 2023. The recent rise is real, and the rate has not "significantly change[d]" since 2018.
We have not finished checking this source. No judgement either way. how we score evidence
Caveat on this rating: Before 1933 the figures cover only the death registration states, not the whole country, and the table warns that revisions of the cause-of-death classification "do create breaks in the comparability". Suicide has been undercounted to differing degrees in different eras. That more people were in treatment while the rate rose is a juxtaposition, not evidence of cause in either direction (treatment use: the adult medication row in this library). A flat rate since 2018 hides opposite movements by age and sex.
Two claims circulate together: that suicide in America is at a record high, and that it keeps climbing. The CDC's own series, which runs back to 1900, supports neither as stated.
Significant findings
The National Center for Health Statistics publishes age-adjusted death rates from 1900, recomputed to the year 2000 standard population so that years can be compared. For suicide the historical table shows 13.1 per 100,000 in 1900, a first peak of 21.1 in 1908, a fall to 13.4 in 1920, and a second, higher peak of 21.9 in 1932, the worst year of the Depression. The 1932 rate for men was 35.2; for women, 8.2. From there it fell almost without interruption: 16.8 in 1940, 14.0 in 1942, 11.5 in 1944.
The modern series: "From 1999 through 2018, the suicide rate increased 35%, from 10.5 per 100,000 to 14.2" (NCHS Data Brief 362). The newest brief reports that the rate "increased from 2003 (10.8 deaths per 100,000 population) to 2018 (14.2) but did not significantly change between 2018 and 2023 (14.1)."
So the 2023 rate is about a third above the 1999 low, about a third below the 1932 peak, and has been flat for five years. In 2018 the male rate was 3.7 times the female rate (22.8 and 6.2); in 1932 it was 4.3 times.
Worth asking
Both readings are true and neither is comforting. A 35 percent rise over two decades is a failure nobody has explained, and it happened while more Americans than ever were in treatment. And the claim that it has never been worse is false by a wide margin. The higher peak is 1932, the worst year of the Depression, and a CDC study of 1928 to 2007 found the same pattern throughout: the overall rate "generally rose during recessions and fell during expansions", most clearly at working ages. That puts at least part of the cause outside the clinic.
If you are in crisis in the US, call or text 988.
Source
Changes in Suicide Rates in the United States From 2022 to 2023 — Garnett MF, Zehner AM (2025)
Read the source: https://doi.org/10.15620/cdc/174625
DOI: 10.15620/cdc/174625
How this was scored
- Study design
- not recorded
- Funding
- not recorded
- Published in
- not recorded
- Sample size
- not recorded
- Preregistered
- not recorded
- Conflicts disclosed
- not recorded
- Independent of proponent
- not recorded
- Retracted
- No
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Published September 21, 2026.
Questions
How strong is the evidence behind this?
veisund rates this source "not yet assessed". We have not finished checking this source. No judgement either way. One caveat travels with that badge: Before 1933 the figures cover only the death registration states, not the whole country, and the table warns that revisions of the cause-of-death classification "do create breaks in the comparability". Suicide has been undercounted to differing degrees in different eras. That more people were in treatment while the rate rose is a juxtaposition, not evidence of cause in either direction (treatment use: the adult medication row in this library). A flat rate since 2018 hides opposite movements by age and sex. The score is calculated from recorded facts about the source — study design, funding, publication venue, sample size, preregistration — not typed in by an editor.
What is the source for this?
Changes in Suicide Rates in the United States From 2022 to 2023 — Garnett MF, Zehner AM (2025). DOI: 10.15620/cdc/174625. The full source is linked on this page so you can read it yourself.
Is this medical advice?
This is information to bring to your prescriber, not medical advice and not a reason to change anything on your own. Nothing here is an instruction to stop or reduce a medication. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.
This is information to bring to your prescriber, not medical advice and not a reason to change anything on your own. Nothing here is an instruction to stop or reduce a medication. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.