The number of veterans who died by suicide in 2022 — nearly 18 per day — remained steady from the previous year but was down from a peak in 2018, with “encouraging” signs of progress among women and younger veterans, Veterans Affairs officials said Thursday.
According to the Department of Veterans Affairs‘ two-part 2024 annual suicide prevention report released Thursday, 6,407 veterans died by suicide in 2022, compared with 6,404 in 2021, a rate of roughly 34.7 per 100,000.
In 2018 — the year with the highest number of veteran suicides in the past two decades — 6,722 veterans took their own lives. At the time, given the size of the veteran population, those deaths translated into a rate that was roughly 32 per 100,000.
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Although veteran suicides saw a slight uptick from 2021 to 2022, the increase — .7 per 100,000 — was smaller than the adjusted rate in the U.S. population, which saw a 1.8% rise among males and a 5.2% jump among females, according to Matthew Miller, executive director for the VA’s Suicide Prevention Office.
“[There are] notable changes within the data in terms of increase or decreases in veteran suicide prevention that provide aspects of hope regarding progress,” Miller said in a roundtable with reporters prior to the report’s release.
The 2024 Annual National Veteran Suicide Prevention Report focused on 2022, the most recent year for which data was available from various sources, including VA records, the Department of Defense, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and states.
Overall, the suicide rate among U.S. veterans in 2022 of 34.7 per 100,000 was more than twice as high as the U.S. non-veteran population of 17.1 per 100,000.
The deaths included 6,136 male veterans — a 1.4% increase from the previous year — and 271 female veterans, a drop of 24% from 2021.
Younger veterans ages 18 to 34 saw a decline, by nearly 4%, in suicides in 2022, and homeless veterans also experienced a 19% reduction in suicides in 2022.
The number of veterans who died within a year of leaving active duty declined from a rate of 51 per 100,000 in 2021 to 46.2 per 100,000 in 2022. By service breakdown, however, the Marine Corps continued to have a significantly higher death rate than veterans from other branches, 67.9 per 100,000 “person years” — a data point that incorporates the number of members and their time in service for the year. However, the figure was down from 2020 when the Marine Corps rate was nearly 81 per 100,000.
The rates for the other branches for members who recently left the service were 47 per 100,000 for the Navy, 38.8 per 100,000 for the Army, and 38.1 for the Air Force, which includes Space Force data.
“This information raises concern about the unique challenges faced by Marine Corps veterans and highlights the necessity for specialized support systems tailored to their specific needs,” Miller said.
According to the report, the deaths translate into 17.6 a day, down from 19 in 2018. The still-repeated mantra of “22 veteran suicides per day” from a decade ago was based on an extrapolation of data from 21 states, taken between 1999 and 2010. The current figures are considered more accurate because they are based on information from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories, as well as government data.
The VA has invested billions in mental health care and suicide prevention and treatment, from more than $13 billion in fiscal 2022 to a request of nearly $17.1 billion in fiscal 2025, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Despite those efforts, including a VA public service initiative focusing on safe storage of firearms and distributing more than 3.2 million cable gun locks, self-inflicted gunshot wounds accounted for 73.5% of all veteran suicides, up more than 7% from the previous year.
Miller said the VA will continue to prioritize firearms storage. “The report underlines a critical need for targeted suicide prevention strategies among veterans, particularly concerning secure firearms storage,” he said.
According to the report, the department also plans to continue building partnerships with community organizations, improve access to mental health services, and implement prevention strategies across medical services and VA settings outside the health system.
The VA also will continue to invest in its Veterans Crisis Line, a service that saw suicide rates drop nearly 23% among those who called it in 2022, Miller said.
VA Secretary Denis McDonough said that every suicide is a tragedy, and there is “nothing more important to VA than ending veteran suicide.”
“We will learn from this report to better serve veterans and save lives,” McDonough said in a statement Thursday.
The previous report stated that 6,392 veterans died by suicide in 2021, an increase of 1.8% from 2020. But the latest report cited the updated 2021 figure as 6,404 during the first full year of the pandemic.
Miller said the changes occur each year as a result of late or modified reports from the states to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Service members and veterans facing a mental health crisis can call the VA Crisis Line at 988, press 1. Help also is available by texting 838255 or chatting online.
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