WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The rate of suicide among active duty service members decreased by more than 15% between 2020 and 2021, a new Pentagon report released on Thursday said, even as officials said more time was needed to see if this signaled a real change.
The U.S. military has seen a spate of deaths by suicide in recent years that have received national attention, including a cluster in Alaska, where service members have to deal with geographic isolation and cold weather, and among crew members of the George Washington aircraft carrier.
The annual Pentagon report found that while the rate had decreased from 2020 to 2021, there was a gradual increase in suicide rates between 2011 and 2021.
“While we are cautiously encouraged by the drop in these numbers, one year is not enough time to assess real change,” Elizabeth Foster, executive director at the Pentagon’s Office of Force Resiliency, told reporters.
“We need to see a sustained, long-term reduction in suicide rates to know if we’re making progress,” she added.
The report said that the rate of suicides in 2021 was 24.3 per 100,000 service members, down from 28.7 per 100,000 members the year prior.
All the military services, except the Army, saw a decrease in suicide rates between 2020 and 2021.
The Army said that while suicides had increased in that time, the number has been decreasing in 2022.
The report said that the vast majority, about 67%, of suicides deaths were carried out by firearms.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
