A potentially suicidal adolescent's risk of actually committing suicide increases 75-fold if there is a gun in the home. Of persons who commit suicide with firearms, more than two-thirds use a handgun. Males are four times more likely to commit suicide than females. Whites have the highest rate of suicide among persons 15 years of age and older. For children less than 15 years of age, Native Americans have the highest suicide rate.
Suicide rates are slightly higher in rural counties.
Persons over 65 years of age are at the highest risk of suicide. One out of three suicides among persons over 14 years of age involves alcohol. In the United States, whites, especially males, are most likely to commit suicide. The rate of suicide among young males 15 to 24 years old has more than tripled in the past three decades. For high school students, that number is as high as one out of four students.