For Release: Wednesday, September 9, 2026
Alaska Has Highest Suicide Rate in Nation
Annual VPC Analysis Released During National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month in September
Washington, DC — States with higher rates of gun ownership and weaker gun violence prevention laws have the highest overall suicide rates in the nation according to a new Violence Policy Center (VPC) analysis of 2024 data (the most recent and complete year available) from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Conversely, states with the lowest suicide rates have lower gun ownership rates and stronger gun violence prevention laws.
The tables below list the states with the five highest and five lowest overall suicide rates in 2024 and include each state’s overall suicide rate, gun suicide rate, total number of suicides and gun suicides, percentage of suicides that involved a gun, and average household gun ownership rate. A similar table for all 50 states ranked by overall suicide rate is available at https://vpc.org/publication/suicide-in-the-united-states/#appendix-one-state-suicide-rates.
The state with the highest overall suicide rate in the nation in 2024 was Alaska, followed by Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, and South Dakota. In each of these five states guns were used in 59 percent or more of the suicides reported that year and all had a household gun ownership rate above 46 percent. Compared to the states with the lowest suicide rates, each of these states has weak gun violence prevention laws.
The Five States with the Highest Suicide Rates Ranked by Overall Suicide Rate
| Rank | State | Overall Suicide Rate per 100,000 | Gun Suicide Rate per 100,000 | Overall Number of Suicides | Number of Gun Suicides | Percent of Suicides Involving Guns | Household Gun Ownership in State |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alaska | 29.8 | 18.8 | 222 | 141 | 63.5% | 64.5% |
| 2 | Wyoming | 27.8 | 19.7 | 169 | 123 | 72.8% | 66.2% |
| 3 | Montana | 26.8 | 16.9 | 320 | 212 | 66.3% | 66.3% |
| 4 | New Mexico | 24.4 | 14.2 | 532 | 317 | 59.6% | 46.2% |
| 5 | South Dakota | 22.0 | 12.5 | 198 | 117 | 59.1% | 55.3% |
The state with the lowest overall suicide rate in 2024 was New Jersey, followed by New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and California. In each of these five states guns were used in 40 percent or less of the suicides reported that year and all had a household gun ownership rate below 29 percent. Compared to the five states with the highest suicide rates, each of these states has stronger gun violence prevention laws.
The Five States with the Lowest Suicide Rates Ranked by Overall Suicide Rate
| Rank | State | Overall Suicide Rate per 100,000 | Gun Suicide Rate per 100,000 | Overall Number of Suicides | Number of Gun Suicides | Percent of Suicides Involving Guns | Household Gun Ownership in State |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | New Jersey | 6.7 | 2.1 | 682 | 222 | 32.6% | 14.7% |
| 49 | New York | 8.1 | 2.3 | 1,701 | 503 | 29.6% | 19.9% |
| 48 | Massachusetts | 8.3 | 2.3 | 648 | 184 | 28.4% | 14.7% |
| 47 | Rhode Island | 8.9 | 3.3 | 105 | 42 | 40.0% | 14.8% |
| 46 | California | 9.6 | 3.5 | 4,022 | 1,530 | 38.0% | 28.3% |
VPC Executive Director Josh Sugarmann states, “The most common reason given for owning a gun is self-defense, yet the most prevalent lethal use of any firearm is suicide. Reducing access to firearms is critical in helping prevent suicide.”
In 2024 there were 48,824 suicides in the United States. Of these, the majority (27,593 or 56.5 percent) were firearm suicides. In addition, suicide is the most common type of gun death in the U.S. In 2024, guns claimed 44,447 American lives. Of these, 27,593 (62.1 percent) were suicides and 15,364 (34.6 percent) were homicides.
In addition to the state rankings, the VPC analysis offers additional information on suicide and firearm suicide trends over time by sex, race, and specific age groups.
The VPC defined states with “weaker” gun violence prevention laws as those that add little or nothing to federal law and have permissive laws governing the open or concealed carrying of firearms in public. States with “stronger” gun violence prevention laws were defined as those that add significant state regulation that is absent from federal law, such as restricting access to particularly hazardous and deadly types of firearms (for example, assault weapons), setting minimum safety standards for firearms and/or requiring a permit to purchase a firearm, and restricting the open and concealed carrying of firearms in public.
Age-adjusted rates were calculated by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. The rates are calculated by dividing the number of relevant suicide deaths in an age group by the population of that age group and multiplying the result by 100,000. This result is then weighted according to the U.S. standard population. More information about how rates are calculated can be found at: https://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/help/ucd-expanded.html#Age-Adjusted%20Rates.
State gun ownership rates were obtained from the 2020 report published by the Rand Corporation “State-Level Estimates of Household Firearm Ownership” (available at: https://www.rand.org/pubs/tools/TL354.html), which is the most recent comprehensive published data available on state gun ownership rates.
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The Violence Policy Center is a national educational organization working to stop gun death and injury. Follow the VPC on X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BlueSky.