In the United States, people ages 85 and older have the highest suicide rate of any age group, at 22.7 per 100,000 people in 2023. But suicide risk doesn’t follow a single demographic line. It shifts dramatically depending on age, sex, race, occupation, and where a person lives, and the groups most affected often get the least public attention.
Age: Older Adults Lead the Statistics
The popular image of suicide skews young, but the data tells a different story. The 2023 CDC figures show a clear pattern: suicide rates climb with age, peaking among the oldest Americans.
- Ages 85+: 22.7 per 100,000
- Ages 75–84: 19.4 per 100,000
- Ages 35–44: 19.2 per 100,000
- Ages 45–54: 18.9 per 100,000
- Ages 55–64: 18.7 per 100,000
- Ages 25–34: 18.6 per 100,000
- Ages 15–24: 13.5 per 100,000
- Ages 10–14: 2.3 per 100,000
The middle age groups (35 to 64) cluster tightly together, all hovering around 18 to 19 per 100,000. That means a 40-year-old and a 60-year-old face roughly the same statistical risk. The real separation happens at the extremes: younger teens have the lowest rates, and the oldest adults have the highest. Social isolation, chronic pain, loss of independence, and bereavement all contribute to elevated risk in older populations, yet suicide prevention campaigns rarely focus on people over 75.
Sex: Men Die by Suicide Far More Often
The gap between male and female suicide rates is one of the starkest in all of public health. Men die by suicide at roughly 3.6 to 3.8 times the rate of women, a ratio that holds whether you look at urban or rural populations. In 2018, rural men had a rate of 30.7 per 100,000 compared to 8.0 for rural women. In urban areas, men were at 21.5 compared to 5.9 for women.
Women attempt suicide more frequently, but men use more lethal methods, particularly firearms. About half of all suicides in the U.S. involve a firearm, and that proportion has been increasing. This difference in method largely explains why men’s completion rates are so much higher.
Race and Ethnicity: American Indian and Alaska Native Populations
Among racial and ethnic groups, American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) people face the highest suicide rates. In 2020, the rate for non-Hispanic AI/AN individuals reached 23.9 per 100,000, compared to the national average of 13.5. That gap has been widening: AI/AN suicide rates increased nearly 20% between 2015 and 2020, while the overall U.S. rate barely changed during the same period.
Non-Hispanic white individuals have the highest firearm suicide rate of any racial group, at 11.1 per 100,000 in 2022, a 9% increase from 2019. The intersection of race, geography, and access to firearms creates different risk profiles for different communities, and no single intervention fits all of them.
Veterans Face Elevated Risk
In 2022, 6,407 veterans died by suicide, averaging 17.6 veteran suicides per day out of a national total of about 131 per day. Veterans make up a disproportionate share of suicide deaths relative to their population size. Male veteran suicide rates increased 1.6% from 2021 to 2022. One notable shift: female veteran suicide rates dropped 24.1% during the same period, even as rates among non-veteran women rose 5.2%. The reasons for that decrease aren’t entirely clear, but expanded VA outreach programs may play a role.
Rural Areas Have Significantly Higher Rates
Where you live matters. Rural suicide rates are consistently higher than urban ones, and the gap is growing. Between 2000 and 2018, rural rates climbed 48% (from 13.1 to 19.4 per 100,000), while urban rates rose 34% (from 10.0 to 13.4). By 2018, a person living in a rural area was roughly 45% more likely to die by suicide than someone in a city.
Firearms drive much of this difference. The rural firearm suicide rate was 63% higher than the urban rate for men and 82% higher for women. Rural communities tend to have higher rates of gun ownership, fewer mental health providers, and longer distances to emergency care, all of which increase the lethality of a suicide attempt.
Occupation: Construction, Mining, and the Arts
Certain industries carry dramatically higher suicide rates. Among broad industry categories, mining tops the list for men at 72.0 per 100,000, followed by construction at 56.0. For women, the arts, entertainment, and recreation sector has the highest rate at 15.0 per 100,000.
The numbers become more striking in specific occupations. Among men, agricultural and food scientists had a rate of 173.1 per 100,000, logging workers reached 161.1, and musicians and related workers hit 138.7. For women, artists and related workers led at 45.3, followed by construction laborers at 38.6 and chefs at 32.9. Jobs involving physical danger, irregular schedules, seasonal layoffs, or isolation tend to cluster at the top of these lists.
LGBTQ+ Youth: Higher Attempt Rates
Suicide data for sexual and gender minority populations is harder to track at the national level because death certificates don’t record sexual orientation or gender identity. What the data does show clearly is that LGBTQ+ youth report far higher rates of suicidal behavior. Among high school students surveyed in 2021, 30% of transgender students reported attempting suicide in the past year, compared to 8% of non-transgender students. Gay or lesbian students reported attempt rates of 25%, and bisexual students 19%, versus 6% among heterosexual students.
These are attempt rates, not death rates, so they measure something different from the population-level statistics above. But they signal an extraordinarily high level of distress. Transgender and gender-questioning students were also roughly twice as likely as their peers to report persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, at rates above 70%.
Where These Risks Overlap
The highest-risk profile in the U.S. isn’t defined by a single trait. It’s the combination of factors that matters. An older white man living in a rural area with access to firearms faces a compounding of nearly every major risk factor in the data. A young American Indian person in a remote community faces a different but equally serious combination. Suicide prevention works best when it accounts for these overlapping vulnerabilities rather than treating each demographic factor in isolation.