How many young people commit suicide per year?

Answer 1

Approximately 1100 college ages students, and 1 in 10 consider suicide each year. In some areas of the country rates are higher... The highest rates of suicide occur on Native American reservations, where there is a suicide or two a week on most. The next highest rates occur in Appalachia.

Further to the above response, Joiner (2005:163-164) states that in 2000, suicide was the third leading cause of death for young people in USA, while it was only the eleventh leading cause of death overall. Greene (1994) found that for children between the ages of 5 and 14 in the USA, suicide ranked between the third and the sixth most frequent cause of death. Greene (1994) offered six "myths and misconceptions" around child suicide that fed into the generalised denial in society about this tragic phenomenon. Feigelman and Gorman (2008) researched the impact of peer suicide on youth suicide by friends of the deceased. They found that the short term effect of such a traumatic bereavement was increased survivors' depression and suicidality but that, fortunately, this effect was NOT maintained over time. The very helpful World Health Organisation (WHO) report (2000) "Preventing suicide a resource for teachers and other school staff" is available online.