Youth suicide is a serious, national health problem affecting our young people today. Although there is really no stereotypical “suicidal type” young person, the statistics on youth suicide indicate that some groups are at a higher risk for suicide than others. Suicide knows no boundaries; it occurs across all age, economic, social, and ethnic boundaries.
- Females attempt suicide more than three times as often as males; however, males die by suicide more than four times as often as the females.
- In the age 10 to 24 group, 81% of the suicide deaths were males and 19% were females.
- Cultural variations also exist in suicide rates.
- Native American/Alaskan Native youth have the highest rates of suicide-related fatalities.
- Caucasian youth have the second highest rates of suicides.
- African-American youth have the third highest rates of suicides.
- Hispanic youth are more likely to report having attempted suicide than their black and white, non-Hispanic peers.
- LGBTQ youth are often considered to be at higher risk for suicide than their heterosexual peers.
- 81.9% of LGBT students have experienced harassment at school because of their sexual orientation
- 63.5% have felt unsafe at school
- 60.4% of LGBT students never reported an incident of harassment or assault to school personnel.
NOTE: This is not a complete listing but rather a general overview of at-risk groups.
