Suicide is a national public health challenge that causes tremendous pain for individuals, families and communities across the country.

On average, 132 Americans die by suicide each day accounting for 47,173 suicide deaths in 2017.

The number of Veteran suicides has exceeded 6,000 each year from 2008-2017.

Suicide is also the 10th leading cause of death among all ages and the 2nd leading cause of death among those ages 10-34 in the United States.


Research shows that for every suicide, 135 people are personally affected — families, friends, co-workers, and community members — which means in one year, up to 6.3 million people were directly affected by suicide.1


1 Cerel, J., Brown, M.M., Maple, M., Singleton, M., van de, Venne, J., Moore, M. and Flaherty, C. (2019), How Many People Are Exposed to Suicide? Not Six. Suicide Life Threat Behav, 49: 529-534.