Suicides among active-duty service members decreased over 15% from 2020 to 2021, according to the Pentagon’s annual report on suicides in the military released today.
The 2021 suicide rate for active-duty service members in 2021 was 24.3 per 100,000 which is down from 28.7 in 2020. 2020 had the highest active-duty suicide rate since the Defense Department started tracking the data in 2011.
“While we are cautiously encouraged in the drops of these numbers, one year is not enough time to assess real change,” Beth Foster, the executive director of the office for force resiliency, told reporters on Thursday morning. “There is still a gradually increasing trend for suicide in the military over a ten-year period.”
In absolute numbers, 328 active duty service members died by suicide in 2021 compared to 384 in 2020.
Service members who died by suicide in 2021 were mostly young enlisted men, which is similar to previous years, according to officials who presented this year’s data to reporters. Firearms continue to be the most common method, followed by hanging asphyxiation.
Earlier this year, three sailors assigned to the USS George Washington died by suicide within nine days of each other. At least one of them died by hanging and one by a firearm, Virginia’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner told CBS News.
Dr. Liz Clark, the director of the Defense Suicide Prevention Office, told reporters her office is looking at systemic issues across the services and particular sites, like the USS George Washington.
In 2021, the Air Force had a statistically significant decrease in active duty suicide deaths between 2020 to 2021 – from 24.6 per 100,000 to 15.3. Both the Navy and the Marine Corps had a decrease in suicide deaths, but officials do not consider the decreases statistically significant. The Army’s suicide among active-duty soldiers for 2021 was similar to 2020.
“While I am encouraged to see a decrease in the suicide rate in our Active Component, we recognize we have more work to do,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.
Austin created a Suicide Prevention and Response Independent Review Committee earlier this year. The committee has a report due to Congress in February about the Pentagon’s progress.
If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or suicidal crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
For more information about mental health care resources and support, The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) HelpLine can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. ET, at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or email info@nami.org.
