Suicide moved into the 10 leading causes of death in the U.S. in 2024, even as the number of suicide deaths declined from the year before.
The finding comes from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics’ Sept. 22 report, “Deaths: Leading Causes for 2024.” The report is based on final mortality data from all death certificates filed in the 50 states and the District of Columbia in 2024.
According to Paul Nestadt, MD, medical director at the Johns Hopkins Center for Suicide Prevention, limiting access to firearms could have the greatest effect on preventing suicide deaths and “will save the most lives.”
More than 28,000 people died by gun suicide last year — more than half of all suicide deaths nationwide, based on preliminary federal figures. The overall suicide rate has recently trended down, yet gun suicides have climbed to record levels for a fifth straight year. Separately, research shows that predicting who is at risk of suicide remains only marginally better than chance, a finding unchanged across five decades of study.
“Instead of asking every doctor to figure out which patient will die by suicide and locking that patient up, it might be that we need to make sure there aren’t loaded guns available,” Dr. Nestadt told KFF Health News.
Extreme risk protection orders — commonly called red flag laws — offer one option; 22 states and the District of Columbia have enacted some version of the policy. Evidence suggests that roughly one suicide is prevented for every 10 to 20 firearms confiscated under these laws.
Here are five things to know about the CDC report:
1. Suicide was the 10th-leading cause of death in 2024, up from No. 11 in 2023. It was the only change among the nation’s 10 leading causes: The causes ranked first through ninth in 2023 maintained their positions in 2024.
The other leading causes, in order, were diseases of heart; malignant neoplasms; accidents (unintentional injuries); cerebrovascular diseases; chronic lower respiratory diseases; Alzheimer’s disease; diabetes mellitus; nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis; and chronic liver disease and cirrhosis. The 10 causes accounted for 70.9% of all U.S. deaths.
2. There were 48,824 deaths attributed to suicide in 2024, representing 1.6% of all deaths. That was down 1% from 49,316 suicide deaths in 2023, when suicide also accounted for 1.6% of deaths.
3. Suicide’s move into the top 10 coincided with a 37% decline in COVID-19 deaths. COVID-19 was the 10th-leading cause of death in 2023 but fell to 15th in 2024 as deaths decreased from 49,932 to 31,426, respectively.
4. Suicide’s rank varied substantially by age. It was the second-leading cause of death among people ages 10 to 24, accounting for 19.2% of deaths, and among those ages 25 to 44, accounting for 10.6%. Among adults ages 45 to 64, suicide ranked eighth and accounted for 3% of deaths. It was not among the 10 leading causes for the older age groups analyzed in the report.
5. There were also differences by sex. Suicide ranked seventh among males and accounted for 2.4% of all male deaths in 2024. It was not among the 10 leading causes of death for females. Overall, males and females shared eight of their respective 10 leading causes of death.
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