US military suicides increased in 2023, Pentagon reports

Source: ABC News

November 14, 2024, 6:53 PM


U.S. military suicides increased by 30 in 2023, according to a Defense Department report released Thursday, continuing an upward trend the Pentagon has struggled to combat. "The findings urgently demonstrate the need for the Department to redouble its work in the complex fields of suicide prevention and postvention," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement Thursday.

There were 523 service members who took their own lives last year, and the total force rate of suicide deaths per 100,000 service members was 9% higher than in 2022, the report said.

"Numerically, that was somewhat higher than the 493 that we lost in 2022, although that increase in terms of the rate and the count for the active component was not a statistically significant increase," said Dr. Timothy Hoyt, deputy director of force resiliency for the DOD.

But while there was a slight dip in the military suicide rate in 2022, and a relatively modest increase in 2023, officials described a concerning overall upward trend since 2011 for active-duty forces.

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