U.S. suicide rates among children and young adults jumped 56 percent from 2007-17, according to a new CDC report.
Researchers analyzed 2000-17 population and mortality data from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, examining cause of death for youth ages 10-24.
From 1999 to 2016, general suicide rates increased about 30 percent nationwide. In 2017, suicide was the second most likely cause of death among youth, behind unintentional injuries like car accidents or overdoses, according to a seperate CDC report.
The new report found that youth suicide rates began increasing in 2007 just as homicide rates started to fall. Suicide deaths jumped from 6.8 deaths per 100,000 people in 2007 to 10.6 deaths in 2017. Individuals ages 10-14 had the lowest rate of youth suicides but this figure nearly tripled from 2007-17.
"The chances of a person in this age range dying by suicide is greater than homicide, when it used to be the reverse," Sally Curtin, CDC statistician and report co-author, told The Wall Street Journal. "When a leading cause of death among our youth is increasing, it behooves all of us to pay attention and figure out what's going on."
The exact cause of the rising suicide rate is unknown. Experts hypothesize that increasing adolescent depression, drug use, stress and access to firearms may be factors, according to The Wall Street Journal. Other experts believe social media use might increase mental health disorders and, therefore, suicide risk. Preliminary studies have tied adolescent phone use to anxiety, depression and sleep deprivation.