Suicidal states - suicide statistics within states and regions

American Demographics, Jan, 1998 by Matthew Klein

In 1994,31,100 people in the U.S. died at their own hand--12 suicides for every 100,000 residents, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The West is the region where Americans are at most risk from themselves. Fifteen of 100,000 Westerners killed themselves each year from 1990 to 1994, when adjusted for age, sex, race, and Hispanic ethnicity. Nevada was tops, at 22 deaths per 100,000, followed by Wyoming, at 20 per 100,000.

A number of social and environmental factors are associated with suicidal behavior, according to the CDC. High levels of residential instability and unemployment, and low levels of social integration may relate to states where people do themselves in.

In every region, the preferred means of suicide is by firearm. Seventy percent of suicides in the South were committed with guns, as were 58 percent in the West and Midwest, and 45 percent in the Northeast.

People appear to be the least hazardous to themselves in the Northeast, where there were 8 deaths per 100,000 population. New Jersey ranks lowest, at 7, followed by New York and Massachusetts, at 8. The South is the region with the second-highest suicide rate, at 13 per 100,000. The Midwest follows, at 10 per 100,000.

For more information, see the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (Vol. 46, No. 34), available from the Government Printing Office; telephone (202) 512-1800, and from the CDC's Web site, http://www.cdc.gov.