Leading causes of death among teenagers aged 15-19 years in the United States 2019

As of 2019, the second leading cause of death among teenagers aged 15 to 19 years in the United States was intentional self-harm or suicide, contributing around 21.5 percent of deaths among age group. The leading cause of death at this time was unintentional injuries, contributing to around 34.5 percent of deaths, while 18.3 percent of all deaths in this age group were due to assault or homicide. Cancer and heart disease, the overall leading causes of death in the United States, are also among the leading causes of death among U.S. teenagers.

Adolescent suicide in the United States

In 2019, more than half of all White, non-Hispanic U.S. students in grades 9 to 12 reported that they had seriously considered attempting suicide, compared to 35 percent of Black, non-Hispanic students. Furthermore, around 47 percent of high school students who identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual had seriously considered attempting suicide, compared to 14.5 percent of those who identified as heterosexual. As of 2020, there were around 11 suicide deaths per 100,00 teenagers in the United States. At that time, Alaska had the highest rate of suicides among U.S. teenagers with around 34 deaths per 100,000 teenagers, followed by South Dakota and Montana.

Mental health treatment

Suicidal thoughts are a clear symptom of mental health issues. Mental health issues are not rare among children and adolescents and treatment for such issues has become increasingly accepted and accessible. In 2019, around 15 percent of boys and 12 percent of girls aged 5 to 17 years had received some form of mental health treatment in the past year. At that time, almost 32 percent of youths aged 12 to 17 years in the United States who were receiving specialty mental health services were doing so because they had thought about killing themselves or had already tried to kill themselves.