February 20, 2025
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Suicides by firearms are far more prevalent in the United States than elsewhere in the world, new research shows.
The United States had the highest number of suicides tied to firearms in the world between 1990 and 2021, new research shows.
Nearly 22,000 American men took their lives by using guns during those three decades, according to the study, published Wednesday in The Lancet. That total accounted for 55% of suicides among U.S. men. Among American women, 31% of suicides involved guns, accounting for more than 3,000 deaths.
Globally, 10% of suicides by men were with guns and 3% of suicides by women were with guns, according to the research.
"Men tend to choose more violent and lethal methods of suicide such as guns, while women are more likely to choose less fatal means such as poisoning and overdosing, which have a higher survival rate," Emily Rosenblad, one of the lead researchers from the University of Washington, said in a news release.
Firearm-related suicides get less attention than gun-related homicides, but account for the majority of U.S. gun deaths, according to the Pew Research Center. And they are at record highs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of all gun-related deaths in 2021, 54%, or 26,328, were suicides; 43%, or 20,958, were homicides. The remaining gun deaths were accidental, involved law enforcement or were from an undetermined cause, according to the CDC.
Globally, about 740,000 deaths from suicide are reported each year – about one death every 43 seconds, the new study found.
Although global suicide rates declined by more than 50% for women and by nearly 34% for men between 1990 and 2021, the suicide rate for U.S. high-income women rose by 23%.
The study also found men are more than twice as likely to die by suicide than women, but that women were 49% more likely to attempt suicide.
Suicide ranked 21st among global causes of death in 2021. It was the 19th-leading cause of death for men and 27th for women.
Men and women are dying by suicide at older ages. The average age of death by suicide was 43 for men and 42 for women in 1990, compared to 47 for men and nearly 47 for women in 2021, according to the study.
Researchers at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington's School of Medicine in Seattle conducted the study, analyzing Global Burden of Disease data by region, country, year, age, sex and suicide by firearms from 1990 to 2021.
