Suicide rates across the active duty military have increased gradually, but steadily since 2011, according to the Pentagon’s annual review of suicides across the military which was released Thursday.
The Pentagon has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on suicide prevention programs in recent years and has requested over a half billion dollars for 2025. But the number of deaths each year have moved stubbornly upward since 2011.
The Department of Defense’s annual suicide report for 2023 also included, for the first time, a long-term look at suicide among military family members, both spouses and dependents who are typically children. Since 2011, there have been “significant increases” in suicide rates among military spouses and dependents combined, though those increases roughly match similar to trends across civilian populations in the U.S., according to the report. Among dependents, males under 18 committed suicide more often than girls or men over 18, according to the report.
The two most common “stressors” associated with service member suicides continue to be those with relationship problems and a behavioral health diagnoses, according to the report.
In 2023, 523 service members died by suicide across all branches of the military including the National Guard and Reserve, 30 more than the previous year. That jump was on par with a long-term trend of annual increases of suicide deaths among active duty troops dating back to 2011. According to the report, the largest increase since 2011 was among service members in the Marine Corps, followed by the Army, Air Force, and then Navy.
The report also noted that 61% of service members who committed suicide were enlisted males younger than 30 years old, a trend that has persisted.
According to the report, since 2011, suicide rates since remained “relatively stable” among reservists and the National Guard.
Half-billion dollars in prevention programs
Tim Hoyt, deputy director for the Pentagon’s Office of Force Resiliency called the Defense Department’s future investments in suicide prevention programs and policies “unprecedented.” As part of the 2025 budget request, the Pentagon asked for $547 million for suicide prevention efforts. Department of Defense officials told Task & Purpose that $261.5 million and 313 positions have been allocated to implement recommendations from the independent committee. The fiscal year 2025 budget has yet to be approved by Congress which enacted a Continuing Resolution through Dec. 20 to avoid a government shutdown
In 2023, officials put forward 83 recommendations in the Suicide Prevention and Response Independent Review Committee’s February 2023 report. On Thursday, officials said the Pentagon has completed plans to implement 20 of the “enabling actions” while the rest are ongoing.
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“During the past two decades, there’s been insufficient investment in making sure that those [initiatives] have staying power,” Hoyt said. “In many cases, we may have had effective programs but weren’t measuring whether or not they were having a substantial impact on the overall number.”
The leading method of suicide for service members and their families was by firearm which is the same finding from the Pentagon’s 2022 report. To address the issue, the Defense Department is working to increase the use of safe storage devices by working with local retailers near bases for discounts and creating vouchers at military exchanges, Dr. Liz Clark, director of the Defense Suicide Prevention Office told reporters Thursday.
Another trend that has continued, according to the report, are number of service members who committed suicide that had intimate relationship problems. In 2023, 44% had relationship problems which were similar to trends going back to 2018. “Intimate relationship problems in the last year was the most common interpersonal stressor identified in both suicide and suicide-attempt forms,” according to the report for 2021.
Hoyt said the Pentagon’s methodology for identifying relationship problems as a risk factor is “multifaceted” including information from surveys and data collected “when doing a scrub of the risk factors in each suicide death individually.”
“Relationship problems has been one of the biggest factors across all of these and that’s why we’re investing in our line of effort with fostering a supportive environment to give families overall better predictability of their career, stabilization options when they’re going to be seeing their service member at home versus not,” he said.
Other common stressors that the report highlighted included roughly 42% with a behavioral health diagnosis, 29% with administrative or legal problems, 24% who had workplace difficulties, 12% with financial difficulties and 12% who suffered abuse from before 18 years old.
If you’re thinking about suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, the Lifeline network is available 24/7 across the United States. Reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by calling or texting 988 and you’ll be connected to trained counselors.
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