Suicide Statistics

The Need for Suicide Prevention and Intervention Services

• “More than 3,000 children and young adults, ages 10-24, take their own lives each year in this country. That’s the human loss equivalent, in children, of September 11, repeating itself every year.” (National Center for Health Statistics, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)
• Suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth in New Mexico. (NM Epidemiology Report, 2006).
• New Mexico ranks FIFTH among states with the highest suicide rates for all age-groups as well as youth and young adults aged 15-24 years (NM Epidemiology Report, 2006).
• Youth in New Mexico have alarming rates of depression and other mental health issues and diagnoses.  Approximately 18,600 children ages 9-17 have severe emotional disturbance and approximately 37,000 more have other mental disorders (Technical Assistance Collaborative, 2002).
• Santa Fe County’s rate of youth suicide is 10^th highest among counties in New Mexico with 5 suicides in the age range of 10-24 years in 2004.

According to the 2007 Santa Fe Public School Youth and Resiliency Survey of students, grades 9-12:

• 17.1% of high school students “seriously considered suicide” during the school year
• 13.9% made a suicide plan
• 11.1% attempted suicide

These statistics do not reveal the true extent of the problem: the devastating loss of promise and hopefulness in a young life that is impossible to quantify. Unfortunately, suicide is a largely ignored issue until it is brought to the forefront by the incomprehensible death of a child.

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