According to 2022 CDC data, Oklahoma has the ninth-highest suicide rate at 21.4 per 100,000 people, 1.5 times the national rate of 14.2.

That is a 17% increase since 2013, and the driving force behind the 20% increase in the overall gun death rate during that same time period, according to Johns Hopkins University research.

A 2023 study on gun deaths in the U.S. found that 58% of gun deaths were suicides and 55% of suicides involved a gun.

Oklahoma had the seventh highest rate of gun suicides at 13.4 per 100,000 people, with gun suicides accounting for 63% of the 857 suicides in 2022. Across the U.S., the rate of gun suicides was 8.2 per 100,000 people.

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in Oklahoma.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Oklahoma Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims.

Sources

• National Center for Health Statistics Suicide Mortality by State – 2022
• National Center for Health Statistics Suicide Mortality in the United States, 2002–2022
• Johns Hopkins – Bloomberg School of Public Health State Data – Oklahoma
• Pew Research Center What the data says about gun deaths in the U.S.
• National Center for Health Statistics Suicide and Self-Harm Injury
• National Center for Health Statistics States – Oklahoma

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