The suicide rate among children aged 10 through 14 has nearly tripled from 2007 to 2017, while the suicide rate among older teenagers has increased by 76 percent between 2007 and 2017, new federal data show. 

According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, the suicide rate among 10 through 24-year-olds has increased 56 percent over the last decade as violent deaths (suicide and homicide) continue to be leading causes of death for that age bracket. 

Though stable from 2000 to 2007, the suicide rate for U.S. adolescents aged 15 to 19 increased from 6.7 per 100,000 persons in 2007 to 11.8 per 100,000 persons in 2017. The pace of increase was greater from 2014 to 2017 with an increase of 10 percent per year on average.

“Not only is suicide trending upward, but the pace of increase is actually accelerating,” said the report’s co-author, Sally Curtin, in an interview with NPR. 

Glenn Thomas, a clinical director of community-based services for behavioral health at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio, told CBS News that the rates of depression have increased in a consistent manner with the suicide rate. 

Full story at The Christian Post.