The year 2022 saw a record high number of suicides in the United States, according to newly-released data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).
As reported by Fox News, roughly 50,000 Americans committed suicide last year, with the NCHS noting that the 50,000 figure is most likely provisional and could rise to even greater amounts. The overwhelming majority of suicide victims were men, with men seeing 23.1 suicides for every 100,000, compared to women with just 5.9 for every 100,000. This marked the highest annual total on record since 1941.
In conjunction with the rise in overall suicides, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) released its own report documenting a rise in suicides among servicemembers and veterans. Between 2020 and 2021, veterans saw the suicide rate increase by 11.6%, resulting in a total of 6,392 suicides in 2021.
“It’s a disturbing trend that after going down for two years, we saw spike,” said Cole Lyle, U.S. Marine Corps veteran and executive director of Mission Roll Call. “After COVID and the Afghanistan withdrawal…it’s probably not surprising that we saw an increase in veteran suicide.”
Furthermore, a survey published in October showed that as many as 36% of young adults, between the ages of 18 and 34, considered suicide at some point last year. At the same time, about 32% said they recognized the warning signs of a potential suicide victim, with another 43% saying they were aware of resources to help prevent suicide.
The nationwide sense of social isolation brought about by the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic lockdowns has been widely blamed for the rise in suicide, depression, and other societal problems in the last several years.