Although teenagers often are portrayed as the most common victims of suicide — such as in the recent deaths of two Montgomery County teens —the rate of completed suicides among the elderly is far higher, experts say.
And in looking at trends among people who kill themselves in the U.S., men far outnumber women in terms of completed self-killings, and whites are the most frequent race to commit suicide.
According to the American Association of Suicidology, the latest statistics on suicidal behavior show that older adults have suicide rates nearly 50 percent higher than that of the nation as a whole. The profile of someone most likely to attempt suicide, though, differs vastly — a young woman.
Montgomery County Crisis Center Supervisor Wendy Turner said there are several schools of thought on these demographic patterns. Most researchers tend to see a major correlation between the weapon of choice and following through with the act of suicide.
“Males tend to use deadlier weapons,” she said. “Some speculate that it also has to do with increased exposure to violence in men.”
Geographic patterns in suicide completions indicate that suicide rates are highest in the Western states. Data from 2004’s National Center for Health Statistics reveals that eight out of 10 of the states with the highest rates are intermountain ones. By contrast, the Washington region remains a lower area for suicides.
According to those same statistics, Maryland ranked 44th inits suicide rate nationally, and Virginia was 35th. In 2004, Maryland had 500 suicides — or 9 per 100,000 — and Virginia had 828 — or 11.1 per 100,000. That’s far less than Alaska at the top of the list, with 23.6 suicides per 100,000 per people. Statistics were not available for the District.
