By Kaitlin Forsberg, Kameron J Sheats, Janet M Blair, Brenda L Nguyen, Esther Amoakohene, Carter J Betz, Bridget H Lyons

Problem/Condition: In 2022, approximately 24,000 persons died of homicide and approximately 49,000 persons died of suicide in the United States, according to the National Vital Statistics System. This report summarizes data from CDC’s National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) on suicides, homicides, legal intervention deaths, unintentional firearm injury deaths, and deaths of undetermined intent that occurred in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico in 2022. Results are reported by sex, age group, race and ethnicity, method of injury, type of location where the injury occurred, circumstances of injury, and other selected characteristics. In contrast to the 2021 NVDRS report, which collected data from a subset of states and included suicide data for persons aged ≥10 years, this report includes data from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, and includes suicide data for all ages.

Period Covered: 2022.

Description of System: NVDRS collects data from death certificates, coroner and medical examiner reports, and law enforcement reports. This report includes data collected for violent deaths and suicides that occurred in 2022. Data were collected from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. A total of 47 states had statewide data, three states had data from counties representing a subset of their population (32 California counties, representing 68% of its population; 32 Florida counties, representing 70% of its population; and 13 Texas counties, representing 63% of its population), and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico had jurisdiction-wide data. NVDRS collates information for each death and links deaths that are related (e.g., multiple homicides, homicide followed by suicide, or multiple suicides) into a single incident.

Results: For 2022, NVDRS collected information on 72,127 fatal incidents involving 74,148 deaths that occurred in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. In addition, data were collected for 727 fatal incidents involving 809 deaths in Puerto Rico, which were analyzed separately. Of the 74,148 deaths that occurred in 50 states and the District of Columbia, the majority (60.6%) were suicides, followed by homicides (30.2%), deaths of undetermined intent (7.1%), legal intervention deaths (1.4%) (i.e., deaths caused by law enforcement and other persons with legal authority to use deadly force acting in the line of duty, excluding legal executions, without denoting the lawfulness or legality of the circumstances surrounding the death), and unintentional firearm injury deaths (<1.0%). Of the 809 deaths that occurred in Puerto Rico, 73.9% were homicides and 23.5% were suicides.

By Jean Augustin Diégane Tine, Véronique Petit, Mbayang Ndiaye, Hélène Langet

Assessing violence and suicide risk at the population level is essential to inform public health policies and guide prevention efforts for mental health. In Senegal, as in much of sub-Saharan Africa, such data remain scarce. This study aims to fill that gap by estimating the prevalence of violence and suicide risk, and identifying associated factors in the Senegalese population. This nationwide, observational, cross-sectional, population-based analytical survey received ethical approval from Senegal’s National Ethics Committee for Health Research. Conducted between July and August 2023, it covered 496 randomly selected households proportionally distributed by demographic zone. Participants were surveyed on their exposure to different forms of violence, help-seeking behaviours, suicidal ideation and behaviours, and psychiatric history. Data were collected via ODK and analysed in R. Out of 2174 respondents (33.58% youth, 49.95% adults, 16.47% elderly), 52.76% reported exposure to violence, predominantly psychological (47.38%), verbal (43.47%), and physical (32.84%). Co-occurrence was frequent: 37.14% reported combined psychological and physical violence. Age and marital status were strongly linked to violence exposure, with women being more exposed to sexual violence (OR = 1.75 [1.12–2.80]). Dakar was identified as the main violence hotspot. The overall suicide risk was 8.40%, with 1.66% at high risk. Exposure to any form of violence significantly increased suicide risk. Individuals diagnosed with a mental illness were at higher risk (OR = 4.76 [3.13–7.14]). Despite high violence prevalence, support remains rare: only 6.2% received psychological help, 10.4% police assistance. Findings reveal that violence and suicide risk are widespread but insufficiently addressed. The results call for urgent development of a national mental health policy centred on prevention and support for vulnerable groups, especially in the current socio-economic and environmental crisis context.