US military suicides increased in 2023, Pentagon reports

(WASHINGTON) — U.S. military suicides increased by 30 in 2023, according to a Defense Department report released Thursday, continuing an upward trend the Pentagon has struggled to combat.

“The findings urgently demonstrate the need for the Department to redouble its work in the complex fields of suicide prevention and postvention,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement Thursday.

There were 523 service members who took their own lives last year, and the total force rate of suicide deaths per 100,000 service members was 9% higher than in 2022, the report said.

“Numerically, that was somewhat higher than the 493 that we lost in 2022, although that increase in terms of the rate and the count for the active component was not a statistically significant increase,” said Dr. Timothy Hoyt, deputy director of force resiliency for the DOD.

But while there was a slight dip in the military suicide rate in 2022, and a relatively modest increase in 2023, officials described a concerning overall upward trend since 2011 for active-duty forces.

“For the longer term, we continue to see a gradual, statistically significant increase in the active component suicide rates from 2011 to 2023,” said Dr. Liz Clark, director of the Pentagon’s Suicide Prevention Office. “There is a low likelihood that this change is due to natural variation or chance.”

Though concerning, military suicide rates have been comparable to those of the wider U.S. population over that time period.

While active-duty and reserve suicide rates increased in 2023, rates for the National Guard dipped slightly, according to the report.

The Pentagon is pursuing several lines of effort to reduce instances of suicide in the ranks, including by working to foster a supportive environment, improve mental health care, reduce stigma for seeking help and better suicide prevention training.

“Since his first day in office, the health, safety and well-being of our military community has been one of Secretary Austin’s top priorities,” deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said during the Thursday Pentagon briefing. “As you’ve heard him say many times before, we owe it to our service members and our military families to provide the best possible care, to identify risk factors and spot warning signs and to eliminate stigmas around seeking help, and when it comes to suicide, one loss to suicide is one too many. The department remains focused on long-term, sustained initiatives to prevent suicide.”

If you or one of your loved ones are struggling or needs extra support, you are not alone. Please call the suicide and crisis lifeline at 9-8-8.