Empowering Young Minds, the Facts & Gaps

🚨 URGENT DATA WARNING 🚨

The traditional suicide rate for Black boys is 11 per 100,000, but when premature deaths from homicide, overdose, and structural abandonment are included, the rate rises to 29.5 per 100,000. This nearly threefold increase exposes how narrowly suicide is defined, masking the full scope of conditions that lead Black boys toward early death.

• The suicide rate among Black youth aged 10-17 rose by 144% between 2007 and 2020, the steepest increase among racial ethnic groups.

 

• In 2007-2017, the rate more than doubled from 2.55 to 4.82 per 100,000 among Black youth.

 

• Black children ages 5-12 are twice as likely to die by suicide compared to White peers.

 

• A startling 1 in 6 calls to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline ends without reaching a counselor
  highlighting chronic under-resourcing of crisis systems.

 

• The rollout of the 988 Lifeline in July 2022 increased call volumes by about 30% in Massachusetts alone, amplifying strain on existing systems.