# United States military veteran suicides **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 3, 2019, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-states-military-veteran-suicides/830461 "2019-03-03T02:10:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2019, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-states-military-veteran-suicides/830461/1 "2019-03-03T02:10:49Z")
Nation wide 22 vets commit suicide every day on average. Nation wide 129 people commit suicide every day on average. These are obviously terrible stats, but when we look at “percent of population”, are vets killing themselves actually at a higher rate than the civilian population? And this might be hard to determine, but how often is the fact that a suicide victim was a veteran, play a role in their death? ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2019, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-states-military-veteran-suicides/830461/2 "2019-03-03T02:23:19Z")
> [@Mangosteen](#): > > These are obviously terrible stats, but when we look at “percent of population”, are vets killing themselves actually at a higher rate than the civilian population? Yes. CDC [reports](https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/suicide.shtml) rates for 2015 and 2016 among the total population of 21.0 and 21.3 per 100k. VA [shows](https://www.mentalhealth.va.gov/docs/data-sheets/2016/2016_Data_Release_FAQ_508.pdf)rates for 2015 and 2016 as 30.5 and 30.1 per 100k veterans. Remember that veterans are included among the CDC total numbers so the non-veteran suicide rate would be a bit less. ---
**Author:** ![Themenin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ee59a6/32.png) [@Themenin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Themenin)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2019, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-states-military-veteran-suicides/830461/3 "2019-03-03T09:02:11Z")
When you break out the general population rate by gender and age cohort the the general and veteran rates are pretty close, with veterans maybe still slightly higher depending on data sources. There are probably also other selection biases for veterans, who are not drawn from a representative cross section of the general population. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2019, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-states-military-veteran-suicides/830461/5 "2019-03-03T11:57:43Z")
Men are overrepresented among veterans and are more likely to have guns, both of which are associated with a higher suicide rate. 47% of male veterans have guns: [Firearm ownership among American veterans: findings from the 2015 National Firearm Survey - PMC](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5735043/) 32% of US men have guns: [America's passion for guns: ownership and violence by the numbers | US gun control | The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/02/us-gun-control-ownership-violence-statistics) Guns are associated with increased suicide because suicide attempts are often impulsive decisions and impulsive decisions made with guns tend to have immediate, severe and permanent consequences. ---
**Author:** ![Littleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ccd318/32.png) [@Littleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Littleman)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2019, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-states-military-veteran-suicides/830461/6 "2019-03-03T19:52:30Z")
After adjusting for age female vets have a suicide rate at 2 times that of non veteran females. Without adjusting age distribution it’s 8x higher. Lest we rely on gun ownership as any sort of indicator, female veterans and female non veterans own guns at the same rate. The aforementioned association in civilian population is dependant on race, gender,location,age, and year, it can have a positive, inverse or no correlation, depending who,when, and where you look specifically. For males that number is 1.3x non veterans Without adjusting age it’s 1.5 times higher. Age distribution adjustment introduces some flaws in this case because among veterans rates are highest in the 18-35 age group at 40.4/100k while in non veteran populations 45+ is highest. So age adjustment cuts off a huge portion of veteran population that happens to have the highest rate by far. 18-35 age group in overall population is about 14/100k. The exact role veteran status plays is still unclear, but deployment location and exposure to combat are suspected to be the biggest factors while amount of deployed time factors in wildly different again depending on the exact group you look at. [https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.mentalhealth.va.gov/docs/FINAL\_VA\_OMHSP\_Suicide\_Prevention\_Fact\_Sheet\_508.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjX37j-z-bgAhVGhuAKHRIhBjcQFjAAegQIARAB&usg=AOvVaw2EDwT5Ed5OZ4YFZ\_8ThWg7](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.mentalhealth.va.gov/docs/FINAL_VA_OMHSP_Suicide_Prevention_Fact_Sheet_508.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjX37j-z-bgAhVGhuAKHRIhBjcQFjAAegQIARAB&usg=AOvVaw2EDwT5Ed5OZ4YFZ_8ThWg7) > **[United States military veteran suicide](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_veteran_suicide)** > > United States military veteran suicide is an ongoing phenomenon regarding the high rate of suicide among U.S. military veterans in comparison to the general civilian public. A focus on preventing veteran suicide began in 1958 with the opening of the first suicide prevention center in the United States. During the mid-1990s, a paradigm shift in addressing veteran suicide occurred with the development of a national strategy which included several Congressional Resolutions. More advancement In 2012 ... [https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna867221&ved=2ahUKEwi4keDA1-bgAhXGmeAKHdolDLkQFjAAegQIAxAB&usg=AOvVaw3kZYsjokE5PFUihhJLEQVz&cf=1](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna867221&ved=2ahUKEwi4keDA1-bgAhXGmeAKHdolDLkQFjAAegQIAxAB&usg=AOvVaw3kZYsjokE5PFUihhJLEQVz&cf=1) [https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/02/us/study-finds-no-link-between-military-suicide-rate-and-deployments.amp.html&ved=2ahUKEwi4keDA1-bgAhXGmeAKHdolDLkQFjADegQIBxAB&usg=AOvVaw2Hjv7-gOWUby4MDqyEFJFu&cf=1](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/02/us/study-finds-no-link-between-military-suicide-rate-and-deployments.amp.html&ved=2ahUKEwi4keDA1-bgAhXGmeAKHdolDLkQFjADegQIBxAB&usg=AOvVaw2Hjv7-gOWUby4MDqyEFJFu&cf=1)