For the first time in more than a decade, the year-to-year rate of suicide in Utah has decreased, although officials warn the reduction isn’t statistically significant and doesn’t constitute a trend.
The Utah Department of Human Services released the finding in its 2019 Suicide Prevention Program report, which noted suicide was the seventh leading cause of death in the state.
According to the report, from 2014 to 2019, Utah’s age-adjusted suicide rate was 21.79 per 100,000 persons — or an average of 620 deaths a year — but noted that the rate dropped from 22.7 in 2017 to 22.