The graph below presents the ratio of the male suicide rate to the female suicide rate each year for the last sixty years in Washington state. A key takeaway: Men and boys haven’t always died by suicide at three and a half times the rate of women and girls.
We compiled the numbers from the Washington State Department of Health’s annual vital statistics reports from 1960 through 2020. 1960 was the first year the department provided suicide figures disaggregated by sex, and 2020 is the most recent year for which suicide numbers are available.
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Observations
The following observations are apparent from the graph above.
1) During the 1960s there were between two and three male suicides for each female suicide annually.
2) The ratio then trended upward over a 30-year period from 2.2 in 1970 to 4.4 in 2000.
3) Since 2005, there have been between three and four male suicides for each female suicide.
As a thought experiment, how many lives would be saved if efforts undertaken by governments, nonprofits, schools, families, and faith communities reduced the suicide gender gap to what it was in the 1960s? The answer, using today’s numbers, is there would be around 250 fewer boys and men taking their own lives in Washington each year.
In 2020, 934 males and 277 females died by suicide according to Washington’s Department of Health.
See related: 4 out of 5 youth suicides in Washington are males: Our testimony to legislators in Olympia [Video]