The U.S. suicide rate has been on the rise since 1999, and “the gap in rates between less urban and more urban areas widened over time,” says the Centers for Disease Control. In its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the agency says a new study “provides added support to previous findings that a geographic disparity in suicide rates exists…”
The news site MedPage Today said the U.S. suicide rate was 15 per 100,000 people in 2015, compared to 12 in 100,000 in 1999. “The rate in large cities increased during 1999-2015 by only one extra suicide per 100,000 population, whereas in non-metropolitan areas the rate grew by about seven per 100,000.”
CDC researchers said, “Geographic disparities in suicide rates might reflect suicide risk factors known to be prevalent in less urban areas, such as limited access to mental health care, social isolation, and the opioid overdose epidemic, because opioid misuse is associated with increased risk for suicide. That the gap in rates began to widen more noticeably after 2007–08 might reflect the influence of the economic recession, which disproportionately affected less urban areas.”