As Iraq calms, American troops’ suicide rate reaches U.S. civilian suicide rate

From 128 to 143 American servicemen took their own lives last year. The numbers indicate that, for the first time since the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, the suicide rate among U.S. troops has matched the suicide rate of American civilians.

These 2008 military suicides -- up from 106 in 2006 and 115 in 2007 -- came at a time when violence had subsided dramatically in Iraq.

The suicide rate was between 18.1 per 100,000 and 20.2 per 100,000. (The 18.1 to 20.2 range is the result of 15 deaths that still are being investigated as possible suicides.) In the United States, civilian men of comparable ages commit suicide at a rate of 19.2 to 19.5 per 100,000 people. (The New York Times says 19.2; the Army says the 19.5.)

Military-civilian comparison. If the figures are averaged, the military suicide rate is 19.15 and the civilian suicide rate is 19.35.

Summary of averages:

U.S. troops suicide rate: 19.15 per 100,000.

U.S. civilians suicide rate: 19.35 per 100,000.

So last year, Americans in the armed forces were killing themselves about as frequently as their fellow American civilians.

Many of our troops have been under stresses that civilians can never imagine. Many of them have been away from home, in Iraq or Afghanistan, two or three times, possibly 15 months at a time.

Where those stresses have caused the kinds of emotional turmoil and family breakup that can lead to suicide, we have to do everything we can to help these veterans. For one thing, we have to recognize them for their hard and heroic work in liberating Iraq and Afghanistan.

We also might ask why civilians almost always kill themselves at a rate higher than soldiers. Perhaps the Army has lifestyle secrets that could benefit civilians.

Fitting the bias. Remember, in the earlier years of the Iraq war, major news organizations reported military suicides principally as alarming evidence that Iraq should be abandoned to tyranny and more wars. In those years, the news stories usually buried the fact that the military suicide rate was lower than the civilian rate, or failed to report it at all. Why? Possibly because Democratic news editors didn’t want readers to notice that our men in arms were more stable than their civilian peers.

This year, when troop suicides match or slightly exceed civilian suicides, we’re finally presented the military-civilian comparison up front. Why? Because this time, even after the Iraq war has been won, the numbers score a point for the old defeatist reflex, which some Democratic news editors just can’t shake.

Frank Warner

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Update: Up to 24 American soldiers committed suicide in January 2009 alone. That is six times the number of military suicides in January 2008, and more than double the military suicide rate of 2008 overall. That high rate is unlikely to continue, but it is good reason to pay closer attention to what our troops are going through.

See also: After a terrible winter [of 2009], U.S. military suicide rate drops.

Note: About 140 GIs killed themselves in 2008, about 12 a month. That was close to the civilian suicide rate for young men.

Update: Military suicides 2009:

January: 31.
February: 28.
March: 22.
April: 10.
May: 16.
June: 9.
July: 8.

Comments

[Sf Mead]

The figures posted for military suicides are for both genders, but the figure for civilian suicides is male only.

But are there only men in the military? I think not.

In mid-2008, about 14 percent of the military were women, and civilian suicide rates among women are 4.4 per 100,000

So, using these figures in combination with your figures, we get:

(19.5 x 0.86) + (4.4 * 0.14) = 17.4 suicides per 100,000 in the military if they actually matched civilian suicide rates for men and women (I'm using the U.S. Army-provided rate for civilian men suicides here).

As such, 19.15 is much higher than the 17.4 we'd have if the military rates actually matched civilian rates for men and women.

[Frank Warner]

Even the 14 percent of women in the military aren't required to be in combat, so it would be deceptive to try linking combat-related experience to suicides of women in the armed forces. You might be able to include a female factor more validly by finding out what percent of all U.S. deaths in Iraq are women. I doubt that percentage is very high.

[Frank Warner]

Women account for about 2 percent of the Iraq war deaths, so we might fairly conclude women are exposed to about 2 percent of the combat action.

The expected suicide rate of 98 percent young civilian men and 2 percent young civilian women could be calculated this way:

(19.5 x 98%) + (4 x 2%), which equals
19.19 suicides per 100,000 civilians.

The armed forces last year had a suicide rate of about

19.15 per 100,000 troops exposed to combat.

Looks pretty close.

[jj mollo]

Uh, Frank, I think there's something wrong with that. You're talking about the expected rate among the victim population? Not the source population? Well, maybe ... I have to think about it.

Basically you're saying that so few women died of any cause in Iraq that they can be ignored. But suppose the overall population of women in Iraq was actually twice as many as men. Then such a small number of deaths would be very indicative of a discrepancy which muddles your conclusion.

I don't know about your logic. I do agree with your assessment of the numbers though. Something about combat was apparently keeping them from killing themselves. There is no statistical difference now with a reasonably comparable population and Sf Mead is just being captious.

My suspicion, though, is that some of the current suicides are really just postponed from earlier, and that the base suicide rate is still lower than stateside. These people are tougher than the average citizen. It would be interesting to know what the rate is for returned Iraq vets who were exposed to combat.

[Frank Warner]

It's not only about American women troops in Iraq. It's factoring in those U.S. women troops (about 2 percent of the U.S. armed forces) exposed to an equivalent amount of combat as men.

We're not trying to compare civilian suicides to suicides in a military population that lives an essentially civilian life. We're trying to compare U.S. civilian suicides to suicides of U.S. troops with a real risk of exposure to combat.

[Frank Warner]

It's comparing what you'd expect the suicide rate to be among young adult civilians to the suicide rate of troops, who are primarily young adults.

[Cwolf]

About 32,000 civilians commit suicide each year with many, many more attempting it. Source:CDC.
The data is very lumpy by age, gender, and race. About 73% of suicides are Caucasian males.
Your points are valid in that military and civilian ddmographics have to be controlled for.
The next point is that CDC takes several years to put data together so the latest CDC data is 2004, maybe 2005. Even in 2004 civilian suicide rates were trending up. But the Army is using current data.
See also Strengthening the Validity of Population-Based Suicide Rate Comparisons: An Illustration Using U.S. Military and Civilian Data

[Cwolf]

Looking at overall death rates matched by age, far more young men died in the US than in combat. Even comparing rates, there are occupations with higher death rates.

The most dangerous thing you can do is give a young male car keys and alcohol.