New study shows US Veteran suicides occur at a rate of twenty per day
The Department of Veterans Affairs, or VA, has begun to release its findings from the largest study done to date regarding suicide rates among veterans, according to ABC News.
It reports that in 2014, an average of 20 veterans took their lives everyday.
The instances were highest among males between the ages of 18 and 29, occurring at a rate that is 86 per 100,000 people, whereas the national average is 13 per 100,000, notes USA Today.
Overall in 2014, 18% of the suicides in the nation were committed by veterans, even though the group accounts for only 8.5% of the population.
Though the numbers have declined since 2010, the figures released for that year were based on estimates, while the most recent study involved actual counts.
The VA will be releasing its other findings, which were drawn from 55 million veteran death records going back to 1979, in the coming weeks, according to UPI.
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