(DCWatchdog.com) – The United States set a particularly gruesome record last year as more Americans killed themselves in 2022 than in any other year since data on suicides was first collected in 1941, according to the latest figures released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Thus, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) documented close to 50,000 suicides in 2022, marking a 2.6% increase from the previous year.
This brought the suicide rate to 14.3 per 100,000 Americans, the highest since 1941, National Review reports.
The surge in suicides was predominantly among older Americans. In contrast, suicide rates among younger individuals returned to levels seen before the pandemic, following a spike in 2021 due to social isolation and financial strains caused by the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.
Notably, suicide rates dropped by 18% for children aged 10-14 and by 9% for those aged 15-24 in 2022.
Elderly adults, particularly men aged 75 and older, faced the most significant suicide risk, grappling with issues like loneliness, grief, and deteriorating health.
For this group, the suicide rate reached nearly 44 per 100,000 people in 2022. NCHS data from 2021 highlighted that firearms are the predominant method of suicide among men, especially as they age.
While men constitute half of the U.S. population, they account for nearly 80% of all suicides. Men are four times more likely to commit suicide compared to women, even though women are more prone to experiencing suicidal thoughts.
For women, those aged 55-64 are most at risk of suicide. In women 75 and older, poisoning (including drug overdose) is the leading method, followed by firearms and suffocation.
The increase in suicide rates aligns with a stagnation in U.S. life expectancy.
Contrary to other developed countries that quickly reverted to pre-pandemic life expectancy rates in 2022, the U.S. has witnessed a sluggish recovery.
From 2019 to 2021, life expectancy in the U.S. plummeted by 2.4 years, and the slight improvement in 2022 restored only 1.1 years of this loss.
The rise in suicides is seen as part of America’s broader issue of “deaths of despair.” Various authors, including J.D. Vance in “Hillbilly Elegy” and Charles Murray in “Coming Apart,” have attributed these escalating rates to diminished opportunities, fragmented communities, and a loss of identity, leading to widespread hopelessness in the U.S.
Over 12 million Americans have reported having suicidal thoughts, a figure that continues to rise alarmingly.
