Suicide Rates Still Rising, Especially among the Young

Charts from Kevin Drum, using CDC data. The rates for men area much higher than those for women, and so far as we can tell this has always been true. (Numbers represents deaths per year per 100,000 people). But women are catching up; since 1999 the rate for women is up 58%, vs. 34% for men.

The dramatic rise in suicide among men 15-24 seems particularly noteworthy. People sometimes call the rising death rate among middle aged people, mostly suicide and drug overdoses, "deaths of despair." But what business do 18- or 22-year-old men have despairing?