New data from the New Mexico Department of Health shows a 9% rise in suicide deaths in the state last year. According to a news release on Wednesday, the state had 512 suicides in 2024, 42 more than in 2023.
Health officials told Source NM the data is provisional and was calculated internally. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not yet issued 2024 suicide data.
Firearms factored into 60% of the suicide deaths in New Mexico, a data point that highlights “how many lives we could have saved with reduced access to lethal means,” Clarie Miller, the health department’s lead suicide prevention coordinator, told Source NM. “One huge misconception about suicide prevention is that if someone doesn’t have access to a firearm, they’ll just go die by suicide another way. That is not true; that is a myth. So by reducing access to lethal means, that gives us an opportunity, that provides hope, that gives us an opportunity for resources and to get this person the support that they need.”
The health department also provides free gun locks.
According to the 2024 data, white New Mexicans had the highest rate of suicide death (29.4 deaths per 100,000 residents); followed by American Indian Alaskan Native (26.2 deaths per 100,000 residents). In addition, the Hispanic suicide rate increased by 27% over the past 10 years.
The department in January reported that New Mexico’s suicide rates for women and Indigenous people had dropped steeply in 2023, and that the overall suicide rate for the state had dropped by 9% that year.
The new figures reset New Mexico at its 10-year average, Miller said. The state has mostly consistently ranked fifth in the nation, she said, adding that the top and bottom states for suicide tend to stay the same. The states with the lowest suicide rates tend to be at sea-level, while the ones with higher rates are at a higher elevation.
“Is that the determining factor?” she said. “Absolutely not. It can be a number of things, but studies have shown that behavioral health medications and physical health medication have a better effect at sea level.” While “there hasn’t been a lot of research done on this in about the last 10 years, I’m hoping that it picks that up again, because it is very promising at really showing us what we could do differently to support our communities.”
The new data released by the state Wednesday coincides with National Suicide Prevention Month in September.
“One thing that I think is really important, particularly in New Mexico, is cultural awareness when it comes to mental health and suicide prevention,” Miller said. “And the acknowledgement that throughout one’s lifespan, there is not a time that suicide isn’t an option. We can’t start thinking that our elders or our grandparents would never be thinking about suicide. We can’t think that our kiddos would never think about suicide. We have to acknowledge that throughout the lifespan, this is a potential, and there is not one time in our lives when we shouldn’t be talking about it.”
