Suicide and Self-harm Injuries among Racial and Ethnic Groups

In addition to the sex and age disparities illustrated in the previous sections, data reveal additional subpopulations whose risk for suicide or self-inflicted injuries may be elevated. Suicide rates were highest among Whites and American Indians/Alaska Natives. Non-Hispanic groups had higher rates of suicide than the Hispanic population. Self-harm injury rates were highest among Blacks and American Indians/Alaska Natives.

Note: While using person-first language (“people who were identified as being white”) is usually preferable, for the data presented here we have chosen to use shorter forms (“Whites”) for clarity and consistency with how such data is typically presented.

 

Figure 13. From 2013–2017, 4,069 Whites, 108 Blacks, 51 American Indians/Alaska Natives, and 48 Asians died by suicide. The rate of suicide was significantly higher among Whites and American Indians/Alaska Natives when compared to Asians and Blacks.

 

Figure 14. From 2016–2017, there were 7,330 White, 843 Black, 172 American Indian/Alaska Native, and 122 Asian hospitalizations with self-harm injuries. The rate of hospitalization with self-harm injuries for 2016–2017 was significantly higher among American Indians/Alaska Natives compared to Blacks, Whites, and Asians.

From 2016–2017, there were 5,367 White, 1,083 Black, 165 American Indian/Alaska Native, and 79 Asian emergency department visits with self-harm injuries. The rate of emergency department visits with self-harm injuries was significantly higher among American Indians/Alaska Natives and Blacks when compared to Whites and Asians from 2016–2017.

Analytic note: Approximately 5% of stays and visits were missing race information or were listed as “other race.”

 

Figure 15. From 2013–2017, 112 Hispanics and 4,154 non-Hispanics died by suicide. The rate of suicide among non-Hispanics was significantly higher when compared to Hispanics. 

 

Figure 16. From 2016–2017, there were 5,407 non-Hispanic and 305 Hispanic hospitalizations with self-harm injuries. The rate of hospitalization with self-harm injuries over this time period was significantly higher among non-Hispanics when compared to Hispanics. From 2016–2017, there were 6,808 non-Hispanic and 486 Hispanic emergency department visits with self-harm injuries. The rate of emergency department visits with self-harm injuries was significantly higher among non-Hispanics when compared to Hispanics from 2016–2017.