Andrew Marr on suicide: what the evidence says · JRE #1589
SUBJECT: SUICIDE
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
the suicide rate has gone up since 2005 in the veteran community by about 6%. But here's the mind-blowing statistic. In the civilian population, suicide has risen almost 50% since 2005
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
Marr claimed veteran suicide rates rose only about 6% since 2005, versus nearly 50% for civilians. VA's own 2023 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report shows a far larger and more sustained increase: the unadjusted veteran suicide rate rose from 23.3 per 100,000 in 2001 to 33.9 per 100,000 in 2021, an increase of roughly 45%, comparable in magnitude to the civilian rise Marr cites, not a modest 6%. Over the same period the non-veteran adult unadjusted rate rose from 12.6 to 16.7 per 100,000 (about 33%). Veteran rates also remained well above non-veteran rates throughout, with the age- and sex-adjusted veteran suicide rate 71.8% higher than the non-veteran adult rate in 2021, the largest gap in the 2001-2021 series. The claim's framing, that veterans have seen only a marginal increase while civilians have seen a dramatically larger one, is not supported by VA's own published data, which shows veteran rates rising by a comparable or greater percentage and staying persistently higher than civilian rates.