Alex Berenson on suicide: what the evidence says · JRE #1246
SUBJECT: SUICIDE
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
The people who commit suicide in the United States are middle-aged white men. And that's a fact.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
CDC surveillance data confirm a real rise in suicide among adolescent females: the rate for females aged 15-19 rose from 2.4 to 5.1 per 100,000 between 2007 and 2015, more than doubling (about a 113% increase), so the "50%" figure understates the documented change even as it correctly signals an upward trend; the absolute rate, however, remained in the low single digits per 100,000 throughout the period. Current NIMH data (2023) show suicide rates rise sharply with age and are far higher among men than women at every age bracket: females aged 15-24 had a rate of about 5.5 per 100,000, versus 29.2 per 100,000 for men aged 45-64 and 40.7 per 100,000 for men 75 and older, the single highest rate of any group; white men (28.0 per 100,000) have higher rates than Black, Hispanic, or Asian men, though American Indian/Alaska Native men have the highest rate by race. This supports the general direction of Berenson's second claim, middle-aged and older men do have far higher absolute suicide rates than young women, but "middle-aged white men" is an oversimplification since the highest-rate subgroup is men 75 and older, not middle-aged men specifically, and multiple demographic groups have elevated rates. No source establishes a causal link between social media use and the increase in young-female suicide; researchers describe the relationship as correlational and unresolved.