A new federal report finds that the percentage of adults with suicidal thoughts and attempts remained about the same between 2021 and 2024.
But the analysis of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health did offer some good news: Over that same time period, depression and suicidal thoughts and behaviors in teens declined.
"I think it's very promising, and we're very hopeful about it," says Jill Harkavy-Friedman, senior vice president of research at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
This is the first annual report released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services since the entire team of scientists in charge of the survey was fired this year by the Trump administration. The federal government has been doing this annual survey for decades. It currently interviews over 70,000 people 12 years and older in households across the United States.
The new report shows that the prevalence of serious suicidal thoughts in 12-to-17-year-olds fell from nearly 13% in 2021 to 10% in 2024. And the prevalence of suicide attempts by teens also fell slightly — from 3.6% to 2.7%.
Suicide is complex and influenced by a whole host of risk factors, including untreated mental illness, prolonged stress, isolation and access to lethal means such as firearms and medications. The new report doesn't delve into the potential causes for the improvement in teens in recent years. But one reason might be that more teens are opening up to others about their suicidal thoughts, says Harkavy-Friedman. She pointed to a suicide prevention program run by her organization called Talk Saves Lives, which educates people about the warning signs of suicide.
"Not keeping it inside and just sharing with someone that you're struggling can be helpful," she says.
Besides, she adds, more teens have been seeking help and finding it.
"More and more kids are getting connected with treatment. And those treatments are specific for suicide and suicide prevention."
The report also found that the share of teens with an episode of major depression in the past year fell during this time — from 21% to 15%. But only about 60% of teens with a recent episode of depression got treatment.
And 2.6 million teens still had thoughts of suicide in 2024, notes Hannah Wesolowski, chief of advocacy with the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
"That's 1 in 10 kids, which is still far too high in this country," she adds. "So we're making progress, but we're not making progress fast enough."
The report also found that 700,000 adolescents did attempt suicide in the past year.
Wesolowski notes that access to mental health care remains challenging for Americans, partly due to high out-of-pocket costs, a shortage of mental health care providers and lack of culturally competent care for different racial and ethnic groups.
According to the new report, while there was a slight increase in the number of adults getting mental health treatment, nearly half of adults with mental illness had trouble accessing treatment.
Disappearing data
Wesolowski notes something missing in the new report compared with previous years.
"This report does not break out prevalence or treatment rates by race or ethnicity, which it has in the past," she says.
"The 2023 report, like in previous years, provided breakdowns by race and ethnicity," KFF researcher Heather Saunders wrote NPR in an email.
"Removing these data limits our ability to track behavioral health trends and any differences in access to care," she noted.
Saunders and her colleagues have used that data in the past to understand differences in prevalence of mental illness and serious mental illness in different racial and ethnic groups.
The survey reports from past years, for example, have been key to identifying the recent increase in suicide rates among Black youth, explains Wesolowski.
"Are we making progress on that?" she says. "Without that prevalence data and really looking at the data by demographics, we're going to maybe not spend our resources in the right way."
Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson at the Department of Health and Human Services, told NPR in an email that the demographic data including race and ethnicity will be published in a forthcoming report.
Suicide remains one of the leading causes of death in the U.S., notes Wesolowski. As the new report notes, suicide claimed more than 49,000 lives in 2023.
"We are putting a lot of money into suicide prevention and mental health services. But the need is so great that we know we need to do more," says Wesolowski, "that this isn't enough."
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, you can dial or text 988 and be connected to help.
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