American Indian youth were far more likely to commit suicide than youth of other races

Of youth ages 7–17 who committed suicide between 1981 and 1998, 17,954 were white (86%), 1,958 were black (9%), 443 were American Indian (2%), and 415 were Asian (2%).³ Because white youth were 80% of the juvenile population during this period, they were overrepresented in juvenile suicides. More specifically, the suicide rate for white juveniles (31 per 1 million) averaged nearly twice the rates for black juveniles and Asian juveniles (both at 18 per 1 million). However, the suicide rate for American Indian juveniles (57 per 1 million) was almost twice the rate for white juveniles.

Between 1981 and 1998, white juveniles ages 13–17 were more likely to kill themselves than to be killed by others Between 1981 and 1998, more white male juveniles ages 7–17 committed suicide (14,080) than were murdered (8,785), while black male juveniles were far more likely to be murdered (11,017) than to commit suicide (1,561). The number of white female juveniles ages 7–17 who were murdered between 1981 and 1998 (3,708) was slightly less than the number who committed suicide (3,874), while more than 6 times as many black female juveniles ages 7–17 were murdered (2,554) as committed suicide (397). Data source: NVSS, compiled by CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. [See Data source notes for detail.]

White youth were involved in a decreasing proportion of juvenile suicides between 1981 (91%) and 1998 (84%). The proportionate growth was mainly in suicides of black youth, which began at 6% of all juvenile suicides in 1981, peaked at 13% in 1994, and ended the period in 1998 at 10%. From 1981 to 1998, the proportion of juvenile suicides also increased for Asian youth (from 1% to 3%) and American Indian youth (from 2% to 3%).

Juvenile Suicides, 1981–1998	Youth Violence Research Bulletin • March 2004