VA Releases Suicide Data by State

Data on Veteran suicide rates by state and region are now available. These state data sheets are a follow-up to VA’s August 2016 release of a national suicide data report, “Suicide Among Veterans and Other Americans, 2001–2014.” The report was based on research in which VA conducted the Nation’s most comprehensive analysis of Veteran suicide rates in the United States, examining more than 55 million records from 1979 to 2014 in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia.

“Suicide Among Veterans and Other Americans, 2001–2014” was originally released in August 2016.

Findings from that report have been updated in the 2017 version to correct minor inconsistencies. In the original report, some data points included U.S. territories while others excluded them, making the data points inconsistent and therefore not comparable. The 2017 version of the report — see below to view and download — excludes U.S. territories from all data points except in Section V. Results Part 1, due to variations in the availability of National Death Index data for the territories. This is consistent with the aggregate suicide counts and rates for the general population, as published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These revisions have a minimal statistical impact on the overall report, and all other methods, definitions, and calculations are consistent with the 2016 version.

View and download the data reports and related fact sheets below.