This dashboard supports suicide prevention planning by increasing public access to and awareness about trends in deaths by suicide in California. Visit Striving for Zero for more information about suicide and its prevention.
Suicide refers to death caused by self-directed injurious behavior with any intent to die as a result of the behavior. People with mental health challenges, especially those experiencing depression, are at increased risk for suicide compared to people without such challenges.
This dashboard displays publicly available data, which can be broken down by demographic factors and methods used in a suicide, such as firearm, using the menus below. It shows both counts of deaths per year (“incidence”) and deaths per 100,000 residents per year (“rate”).
There are two views on the dashboard below. The “Overview” page displays a map of California color coded by the county level suicide rate. On the right, there are two trend line graphs for suicide incidence and rate which the user can tailor by making selections on age groups, cause of injury, race, and sex.
The “Detailed View” show the county level suicide incidence by selected category at the top. The bottom of the page displays county level suicide rate by selected category. The orange line (or dot) is the California rate for selected categories. User can customize the view by making selections using the county, age group, cause of injury, race, and sex filter on the top of the page
If you or someone you know is in need of support, you can reach a trained crisis counselor 24/7 by calling or texting the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or click here to chat with a counselor at the lifeline.
Key Findings/Highlights
In California and nationally, white men over 25 are most likely to die by suicide compared to other demographic groups.
Between 2010 and 2019, the suicide rate had the highest increase for Latino(a)s (35.6%) followed by African Americans (31.1%).
Though Northern California counties have the highest rates of death by suicide, counties in Southern California have the highest number of deaths by suicide.
