Legislators in Olympia need to know 4 out of 5 youth suicides each year are males
This morning the House Appropriations Committee will vote on House Bill 1354, which would create a commission to review the details of every youth suicide that occurred in Washington state during the year 2020. (The bill counts any suicide by a person up to age 25 as a youth suicide.) If a majority of the thirty-three members of the Appropriations Committee do not vote Yes on the bill, it is dead for the 2021 legislative session.
During the two occasions when the Children, Youth, and Families Committee discussed HB 1354 prior to referring it to the Appropriations Committee, no one brought up data on who is actually killing themselves. When legislators in Olympia discuss preventing youth suicides, they need to know that four out of five youth suicides each year are boys and young men. (WIBM has covered previously that men commit suicide in Washington at three times the rate of women, when considering people of all age groups.) According to the Washington State Department of Health, firearms are the leading method of suicide for both males and females.
We delivered the testimony below to the House Appropriations Committee on February 19 during a public hearing [1-min video]
Youth suicides are tragic and devastating, and it is worth spending money to prevent them. If we want to prevent them, it’s important to know who is killing themselves.
The CDC has this information, and the data show that in Washington, 4 out of 5 youth suicides are boys and young men.
To explain this a bit, when we look at suicides during each of the last 5 years of available data – that is 2015 through 2019 – and we restrict it to ages 9 through 25, we see that…
- Each year, about 80% of suicides are boys.
- In 2018, for example, youth suicides were 74% boys, which is a ratio of 3:1 males to females — and that’s the smallest ratio.
- The largest ratio was 6:1, and that was in 2016, when 86% of youth suicides were boys and young men.
What are the actual numbers of young people dying by suicide in our state? Earlier today I emailed each of you a simple table with this data, but it’s around 40 young women 160 young men each year. That’s for the years 2015 through 2019; I don’t know what 2020 will show us.
I’ve spoken with the bill’s prime sponsor, Representative Mosbrucker, about bringing attention to this gender disparity. She and I will work together to make sure it is given due attention.
When we know who is killing themselves, we can do a better job of developing solutions to prevent it.
Thank you for your time.
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