Federal figures charting nearly two decades of deaths found rates rising among girls and young women while falling among their male peers — a gap that later surveys show persisting in a different form
Suicide rates among girls and young women in the United States climbed over an 18-year period while rates among boys and young men fell, according to data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency’s report examined people aged 10 to 24 and compared figures from 1994 through to 2012. It found the female rate rose from 2.7 to 3.2 per 100,000, while the male rate dropped from 15.7 to 11.9 per 100,000. The findings were released on 5 March 2015 and were framed by the CDC as potentially significant for prevention work.
A widening gap in one direction, a narrowing one in another
The headline comparison in the report was between two trends moving in opposite directions. Female rates were rising from a low base. Male rates were falling from a much higher one, and remained several times greater than the female figure even after the decline.
At the time, the report’s lead author acknowledged a significant limitation in what the data could explain. Speaking to Dispatch Times, they said the figures did not allow researchers to establish a reason, raising open questions about the possible influence of social media and conventional media. Others working in the field pointed towards economic conditions. CCTV America reported the view among some prevention specialists that job losses and related pressures had contributed, with one describing how “those life stressors are increased”.
Alongside the mortality data, the CDC also reported survey findings on young people who had not died but were at risk. Around 17 per cent of high-school students said they had seriously considered suicide, and 8 per cent said they had made an attempt in the previous year.
What the more recent CDC figures show
Later analysis has complicated the picture set out in 2015. The national suicide rate in 2024 was 14.6 deaths per 100,000, with a substantially higher figure for males, at 22.2, than for females, at 5.6. Among younger age bands, the 2024 rates were 2.3 per 100,000 for those aged 10 to 14, 9.4 for 15 to 19-year-olds and 17.0 for those aged 20 to 24.
The rise among young females has not continued indefinitely. For females aged 10 to 14, the rate stood at 2.3 in 2024, and the CDC’s most recent detailed analysis found no statistically significant change for females aged 15 to 24 between 2018 and 2022. The male decline, by contrast, has persisted. Among males aged 10 to 14, the rate fell from 3.6 in 2020 to 2.8 in 2022; among males aged 15 to 24, it fell from 22.4 to 21.1 over the same period.
One further figure requires careful handling. The overall death rate for 15 to 24-year-olds fell by 12.9 per cent between 2023 and 2024, from 76.8 to 66.9 per 100,000. That is an all-cause measure covering every type of death, and does not indicate a fall of that scale in suicide specifically.
Survey data tell a different story to the death records
Where mortality figures show males at far greater risk, survey data on thoughts and attempts point the other way. In the CDC’s 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 27 per cent of female high-school students said they had seriously considered attempting suicide, against 14 per cent of male students. Female students were also more likely to report having made an attempt. The agency describes girls as experiencing more suicidal thoughts and behaviours than boys.
There have been improvements since the previous survey cycle. Between 2021 and 2023, the proportion of female students who had seriously considered suicide fell from 30 per cent to 27 per cent, while reported persistent sadness or hopelessness among girls dropped from 57 per cent to 53 per cent. Across all high-school students, serious consideration of suicide declined from 22 per cent to 20 per cent and reported attempts from 10 per cent to 9.5 per cent.
Broader data and a shift towards protective factors
The CDC has since expanded what it publishes. A page released on 27 May 2026 provides national and state-level information on suicide-related emergency-department visits and on suicidal thoughts and attempts among young people, broken down by age, sex, race and ethnicity.
The agency’s newer work also gives greater weight to what helps rather than only what harms. In the 2023 survey, every protective factor examined by the CDC — spanning individual, family, school and community levels — was associated with a lower prevalence of at least one mental-health or suicide-risk indicator.
The question raised by the 2015 report’s lead author about social media has since entered formal surveillance. The 2023 YRBS was the first in the series to ask students nationally about how often they used social media. The CDC found an association between social-media use and mental-health outcomes, particularly among girls and certain other groups, while stressing that the data do not establish cause. Its 2025 questionnaire retains questions on serious consideration of suicide, planning, attempts and attempts requiring medical treatment, meaning newer national data are being gathered, though 2023 remains the most recent published set.
