The number of suicides in the United States has been on the rise since 1999, according to a new report.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide rates rose approximately 1 to 2 percent yearly from 1999 to 2014.
The suicide rate went up a total of 24 percent, the report by the National Center for Health Statistics at the CDC found. That represents an increase from 10.5 suicides for every 100,000 people, to 13 suicides for every 100,000 people — a return to the 1996 suicide rate.
The largest increases were among women and girls, middle-aged adults and American Indians and Alaska Natives. Among women and girls, the increase was greatest for those aged 10-14, and for males, those aged 45-64.
The suicide rate also increased in every age group except those 75 and older.
The most frequent suicide method in 2014 for males involved the use of firearms (55.4 percent), while poisoning was the most frequent method for females (34.1 percent), the CDC said.
“We don’t know why. We would like to know why. Knowing it’s going up, we are concerned, but we are not surprised because we have seen this trend happening,” Jane Pearson, chair of the Suicide Research Consortium at National Institute of Mental Health, told ABC News, adding that there is not enough funding to study and prevent suicide.
Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S.
