Based on 2021 data from the CDC’s National Vital Statistics System, the occupational group with the highest suicide rate in the United States is agricultural and food scientists, at 173.1 per 100,000 workers. Logging workers follow closely at 161.1 per 100,000. These rates are dramatically higher than the general population rate, which hovers around 14 per 100,000. But the picture changes depending on whether you look at specific job titles, broad industry categories, or sheer number of deaths, and several other professions carry elevated risk that deserves attention.
The Occupations With the Highest Rates
The CDC tracks suicide by both industry (the type of business someone works in) and occupation (the specific job they do). Among specific occupations for males in 2021, the five with the highest suicide rates per 100,000 workers were:
- Agricultural and food scientists: 173.1
- Logging workers: 161.1
- Musicians, singers, and related workers: 138.7
- Fishing and hunting workers: 130.6
- Other extraction workers (mining, quarrying): 128.7
When you look at industries rather than specific job titles, aerospace products and parts manufacturing tops the list at 147.5 per 100,000, followed by performing arts and spectator sports at 126.2, logging at 113.8, fishing, hunting, and trapping at 111.7, and coal mining at 83.9.
These are small occupational groups, so even a handful of deaths can push the per-capita rate very high. That’s part of why the numbers look so extreme compared to larger industries.
Construction: The Largest Total Impact
By raw numbers, construction stands apart. Almost one in five suicide deaths with a reported industry code in 2021, roughly 17.9%, involved construction workers. That’s despite construction making up only 7.4% of the workforce. Both male and female construction workers had the highest suicide rates compared to all other industries when looking across demographic characteristics.
Construction work combines several risk factors at once: physically demanding labor, seasonal layoffs that create financial instability, a culture that often discourages talking about mental health, and high rates of chronic pain that can lead to substance use. The sheer size of the construction workforce means this industry accounts for more total suicide deaths than any other sector in the country.
Farming and Rural Occupations
Research consistently finds that farmer suicide rates are at least double those of the general population. Male farmers age 65 and older carry the highest risk within the profession, at about 22 per 100,000. But younger farmers between 18 and 44 also show elevated rates around 15.9 per 100,000, which researchers have had a harder time fully explaining.
The stressors are relentless and largely outside a farmer’s control: unpredictable weather, fluctuating commodity prices, machinery breakdowns, mounting debt, and deep geographic isolation. Older farmers face the added burden of declining physical health and the threat of losing a farm that may have been in the family for generations. Over a 15-year study period from 2003 to 2017, male farmer suicide rates increased at a statistically significant pace of about 2.4% per year. Ready access to firearms on the farm is another contributing factor.
Physicians and Veterinarians
Physicians die by suicide at roughly 1.44 times the rate of the general population. The gap is even wider for female physicians, whose suicide rate is about 1.94 times that of women in other professions. Male physicians face a risk about 1.24 times the general male population. Medicine selects for perfectionists, then subjects them to extreme hours, sleep deprivation, moral distress, and a professional culture that treats vulnerability as weakness.
Veterinarians face a parallel set of pressures. A CDC survey found that since graduating from veterinary school, about 14% of male veterinarians and 19% of female veterinarians had experienced suicidal thoughts. Roughly 1 in 4 male vets and more than 1 in 3 female vets reported depressive episodes after entering the profession. The emotional toll of euthanizing animals, combined with client anger, student debt that often exceeds $150,000, and relatively modest salaries, creates a punishing combination.
Both professions also share a critical risk factor: daily access to lethal medications. People who work around firearms, drugs, or toxic chemicals use those methods at significantly higher rates than people without workplace access to them. Familiarity with lethal substances lowers a psychological barrier that might otherwise slow an impulsive decision.
Police Officers and First Responders
Police officers are more likely to die by suicide than in the line of duty. In 2020, 116 officers died by suicide compared to 113 killed on the job. By 2021, officer suicides had risen to 150. The job involves repeated exposure to traumatic scenes, hypervigilance that doesn’t switch off at home, irregular sleep schedules, and a strong internal stigma against seeking help. Officers often fear that disclosing mental health struggles could cost them their firearm clearance and, with it, their career.
Constant access to a loaded service weapon compounds the risk. Across occupations, people who work with firearms use them as a means of suicide far more often than the general public does.
What These Jobs Have in Common
The highest-risk occupations share a recognizable cluster of conditions. Physical isolation is one: loggers, farmers, fishers, and miners often work in remote areas far from mental health services and social support. Financial volatility is another, since many of these jobs depend on weather, commodity prices, or seasonal demand. Chronic pain and injury run through construction, extraction, farming, and logging. And a pervasive culture of toughness discourages workers in nearly all of these fields from acknowledging distress, let alone seeking treatment.
Access to lethal means ties many of these professions together. Farmers and police officers have firearms within arm’s reach. Physicians and veterinarians have medications. Extraction workers and farmers have chemicals and heavy machinery. Research on suicide consistently shows that putting distance between a person in crisis and a lethal method, even brief distance, saves lives.
Workplace Prevention Programs That Work
Industry-specific mental health programs have shown measurable results. Of 10 studies evaluating workplace suicide prevention interventions, 9 found a decrease in suicide rates after implementation, and 7 of those decreases were statistically significant. A program called Together for Life, implemented among Montreal police, led to a 78.9% drop in officer suicide rates compared to a control group of officers elsewhere in Quebec, and rates stayed lower for a full decade afterward. The U.S. Air Force saw a 33% reduction in suicide risk after rolling out its own program. In Australia, a construction-industry initiative called MATES produced a 9.6% decrease in suicide risk among workers it reached.
These programs tend to share common elements: training coworkers to recognize warning signs, normalizing conversations about mental health within the specific culture of that industry, reducing barriers to treatment, and in some cases restricting access to lethal means during known high-risk periods. The evidence suggests that when interventions are designed for a specific workforce rather than applied generically, they are significantly more effective.