There are some stark disparities in both gender and race when it comes to suicide. Men die by suicide 3.6 times more often than women, and the suicide rate is more than twice as high among Whites compared to African Americans or Asians and Pacific Islanders. The result? White men account for nearly 70% of suicide deaths
In 2001, 73 percent of all suicide deaths and 80 percent of all firearm suicide deaths were white males. These men are also eight times more likely to kill themselves than are women of the same age group, and have almost twice the rate of all other groups of male contemporaries.
And as black and white men age, the gap in suicide rates between the two groups widens considerably. White males in the 45-64 age range commit almost three times as many suicides (26.1 per 100,000) as their black male contemporaries (at 9.0 per 100,000).
Among both men and women, suicide rates for blacks, Hispanics, and Asians are much lower than those for whites.