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Help is Available

If you are experiencing a medical emergency or have harmed yourself in any way—or have witnessed a drug overdose—dial 911 immediately.

If you are in crisis, call the toll-free National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The service is available to anyone. All calls are confidential.

If you are having a psychiatric or substance abuse crisis and need assistance, contact the 24/7 Delaware Hope Line at 1-833-9-HOPEDE (1-833-946-7333).

Additional resources are available at HelpisHereDE.com for Delawareans and their loved ones suffering from substance use disorder and other behavioral health issues.

A five-year lens

In 2020, the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) completed a comprehensive look at suicide in Delaware.

Nearly 600 Delawareans died by suicide during the five-year period reviewed (2014-2018). The individuals were primarily male, between the ages of 25-64, white (non-Hispanic), not married 1, and had at least a high school diploma or equivalent.

By examining the data and the characteristics of those who died, DHSS seeks to provide residents, health care professionals, local organizations, and others with insights that could help prevent future suicides.

Delaware’s trends resemble national trends.

Similar to the nation as a whole, most Delawareans who have died by suicide have been male.

National rate of death by suicide

In 2018, the national rate of death by suicide was 14.2 per 100,000 people, making it the 10th leading cause of death in the country. 2

2018
14.2
per 100,000 people
Delaware rate of death by suicide

Though not directly comparable to the U.S. rate due to the time frames studied, Delaware's 2014-2018 rate was 12.0 per 100,000 people—the state's 12th leading cause of death. 3

2014 - 2018
12.0
per 100,000 people

Click to toggle between Delaware and national rates

The state has also experienced consistent trends in terms of suicide by race and age.

Non-Hispanic white males as well as 45-54-year-olds and the very elderly (85+) have the highest rates of death by suicide, which is largely consistent with national figures. 4

Delawareans of all ages, education levels, marital statuses, and occupations die by suicide, although some characteristics are more prevalent than others.

2014 - 2018
Total number of Delawareans who died by suicide
593
2014 - 2018
Rate of Delawareans who died by suicide
12.0
per 100,000 people

The data presented below looks more closely at some of the characteristics of the 593 people who died by suicide between 2014-2018 at both the state and county level. 5

Suicide Rates Across Delaware, 2014-2018

Source: Pantoni, B., Judd, C. (2020). Suicide Surveillance, Delaware 2014 – 2018. Delaware Department of Health and Social Services; Division of Public Health; Epidemiology, Health Data, and Informatics Section.

Note: "Not married" encompasses all U.S. Census marital status (MAR) categories that are not "married," including "widowed," "divorced," "separated," and "never married." A decedent was deemed to have an "armed forces background" if their state certificate of death included an affirmative answer to the question "Ever in U.S. armed forces?". Rate denominators were based on U.S. Census military service (MIL) categories, with "armed forces background" encompassing all categories except "N/A" and "never served in the military."

Occupation and Suicide

The 593 Delawareans who died by suicide between 2014-2018 worked in a variety of professions, from farming to finance to maintenance. Some occupations, however, were more prevalent when compared to the distribution of employment across the state. 6

Occupation distribution of employed persons, Delaware, 2014-2018

Occupation distribution of employed suicide decedents, Delaware, 2014-2018

Sources: Pantoni, B., Judd, C. (2020). Suicide Surveillance, Delaware 2014 – 2018. Delaware Department of Health and Social Services; Division of Public Health; Epidemiology, Health Data, and Informatics Section.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2014-2018.

Additional Surveillance Study Findings

  • Individuals between the ages of 25 and 64 make up about 50% of Delaware's population, but that age group accounted for almost 70% of suicide deaths between 2014 and 2018.
  • In Delaware, as nationally, men are more likely to die by suicide than women. For non-Hispanic white males, in particular, the rate between 2014 and 2018 was 26.3 per 100,000 people in the state.
  • Over 80% of the Delawareans who died by suicide between 2014 and 2018 had at least a high school diploma (or equivalent)—a greater portion than the population as a whole.
  • Of individuals who died by suicide between 2014 and 2018, about 20% were divorced—a percentage that was about twice the rate for Delaware residents as a whole.
  • Approximately 1 in 10 Delawareans who died by suicide between 2014 and 2018 were black (non-Hispanic), but among decedents 5-24 years old, that proportion was more than 1 in 5.
  • While Delawareans with an armed forces background comprise less than 10% of the state's population, they accounted for nearly 20% of suicides between 2014 and 2018.

Sources: Pantoni, B., Judd, C. (2020). Suicide Surveillance, Delaware 2014 – 2018. Delaware Department of Health and Social Services; Division of Public Health; Epidemiology, Health Data, and Informatics Section.
Delaware Office of State Planning Coordination, Delaware Population Consortium, Annual Population Projections Data Tables, Version 2021.0, October 31, 2021.
U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates – Public Use Microdata Sample 2018.

Help is Available, and Help is Here

DHSS and partner organizations across the state—and the nation—offer support and resources for people affected by suicide, substance use disorder, and mental and behavioral health issues.

If you are experiencing a medical emergency or have harmed yourself in any way—or have witnessed a drug overdose—dial 911 immediately.

If you are having a psychiatric or substance abuse crisis and need assistance, contact the 24/7 Delaware Hope Line at 1-833-9-HOPEDE (1-833-946-7333).

Technical Note and Sources

Sources of Data

In addition to the sources cited, the data reported in this presentation is based on DHSS’s 2014-18 Suicide Surveillance Study (Pantoni, B., Judd, C. (2020). Suicide Surveillance, Delaware 2014 – 2018. Delaware Department of Health and Social Services; Division of Public Health; Epidemiology, Health Data, and Informatics Section.)

Surveillance Study Methods

All deaths that occur in Delaware are reported to the Delaware Division of Public Health (DPH) Office of Vital Statistics and registered via the Delaware Electronic Vital Records System. The Epidemiology, Health Data, and Informatics Section (EHDIS) submitted a limited data request to the DPH Privacy board for suicide death records based on ICD-10 codes: X60-X84 and Y87.0 for Delaware resident data and Delaware occurrence data from years 2014 to 2018. After receiving approval from the DPH Privacy Board, the DHSC created a statistical file that included a list of de-identified suicide decedents including manner of death and demographic characteristics.

DPH selected the population for analysis based on the standard national suicide mortality surveillance definitions. Once the final analytic dataset was created, usual occupations were coded using the Standard Occupation Classification (SOC 2018), and additional general population data was retrieved from Delaware Population Consortium tables (October 31, 2021, Version 2021.0) and the U.S. Census Bureau (American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates – Public Use Microdata Sample 2018).

Analysis was performed in SAS, Excel, and R.

Footnotes

  1. "Not married" encompasses all U.S. Census marital status (MAR) categories that are not "married," including "widowed," "divorced," "separated," and "never married."
  2. Hedegaard H, Curtin SC, Warner M. Increase in suicide mortality in the United States, 1999–2018. NCHS Data Brief, no 362. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2020. PDF Document .
  3. Delaware Health Statistics Center. Delaware Vital Statistics Annual Report, 2018. Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, Division of Public Health: 2020. PDF Document .
  4. Hedegaard H, Curtin SC, Warner M. Increase in suicide mortality in the United States, 1999–2018. NCHS Data Brief, no 362. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2020. PDF Document ; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institue of Mental Health, Suicide, Web source .
  5. Pantoni, B., Judd, C. (2020). Suicide Surveillance, Delaware 2014 – 2018. Delaware Department of Health and Social Services; Division of Public Health; Epidemiology, Health Data, and Informatics Section.
  6. Decedent occupations were drawn from responses to a state certificate of death query ("DECEDENT'S USUAL OCCUPATION (Indicate type of work done during most of working life. DO NOT USE RETIRED.") and coded using the Standard Occupation Classification (SOC 2018). State occupational data was sourced from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2014-2018.