Suicides in Military in 2018 Highest in Six Years

The U.S. military finished 2018 the highest number of suicides among active-duty personnel in at least six years, Military.com reported.

A total of 321 active-duty members took their lives during the year, including 57 Marines, 68 sailors, 58 airmen, and 138 soldiers.

The deaths equal the total number of active-duty personnel who died by suicide in 2012, the record since the services began closely tracking the issue in 2001, the military news outlet reported.

The Marine Corps' deaths represent a 25 percent increase from 2017, the highest number of suicides since tracking began; Navy suicides was up from 65 in 2017. Air Force officials said the 2018 number was down from 63 in 2017, and Army suicides were the highest since 2012, but still lower than that year, when 165 soldiers committed suicide.

The suicide rates for the military services are not generally published by the individual services but instead are calculated based on the number of deaths and population of the services. The last report in 2016 showed that rate across all the military services was 21.1 deaths per 100,000 active-duty service members, Military.com reported.

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