November 29, 2023 – New government data shows U.S. suicides hit one other record high in 2022, however the numbers also contain excellent news about suicides amongst young people and deaths within the U.S. overall.
The government uses data from death records to calculate life expectancy. Life expectancy within the United States is currently 77.5 years, with life expectancy for men at 74.8 years and for girls at 80.2 years. The CDC said so new data from 2022 represents a rise in life expectancy of about one 12 months in comparison with 2021 estimates. The increase in life expectancy is essentially as a result of fewer deaths from COVID-19, and life expectancy would have been even higher if more people didn’t get the flu and pneumonia, health problems during and after pregnancy, kidney disease and malnutrition.
But life expectancy for people within the United States stays lower than before the pandemic, showing that the country has not yet fully recovered from the consequences of the pandemic. In 2019, life expectancy was 78.8 years, still greater than a 12 months higher than the newly published estimate.
Other countries experienced smaller impacts on life expectancy from COVID and recovered more quickly in comparison with the U.S., said Steven Woolf, MD, MPH, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University The Washington Post.
“It is worrying, but not surprising to me, that we have not had the recovery that other countries have had,” Woolf said.
A second republished CDC report shows that the variety of suicides within the United States continues to extend, totaling 49,449 deaths in 2022. That's a 3% increase over 2021's record number and continues a series of increases over your entire 21 yearsst Century. The annual suicide rate is currently 14.3 deaths per 100,000 people within the United States
The suicide rate rose more amongst women and girls than amongst men and boys. For women, the rise since 2021 has been 4%, for men the rise has been 1%. When suicide rates by age and gender are considered together, men ages 35 and older usually tend to commit suicide, and girls ages 25 and older usually tend to commit suicide.
However, the suicide rate amongst men and boys continues to be about 4 times higher than the suicide rate amongst women and girls. For every 100,000 people, 23.1 men committed suicide in 2022, in comparison with 5.9 women who committed suicide in the identical 12 months.
The vivid spot within the report was that suicides largely fell amongst younger people, including children and teenagers. After the pandemic began, suicides and mental health issues amongst young people increased alarmingly, resulting in a suggestion from the Surgeon General in 2021.
The report stated: “The challenges facing today’s generation of young people are unprecedented and extremely difficult to overcome.” And the impact of those challenges on their mental health is devastating.”
The researchers noted that the majority data sent to the CDC on suicide deaths requires investigations to find out the explanation for death and that drug poisoning deaths take the longest to report. In the past, suicide rates have been adjusted upward following early reports, akin to newly released CDC numbers. One area where adjustment may occur in the longer term is suicide deaths amongst women and girls.
“Because drug poisoning-related suicides account for a larger proportion of female suicides, the completeness of preliminary female suicide counts typically lags behind that of men,” the authors write.