South Dakota

  • Suicides make up 82% of all firearm deaths in South Dakota.
  • Nearly half of all suicides in South Dakota are by firearm.
  • In 2017, there were 83 firearm suicide deaths in South Dakota.
  • Compared to other states, South Dakota’s firearm suicide rate in 2017 was ranked 28/50 from lowest to highest.

Data

Firearm Deaths in South Dakota
2008-2017

Number of deaths

Suicide
Homicide
Other

The “other” category is defined as any firearm death that is not defined by the CDC as a homicide or a suicide. This could include unintentional, undetermined, and legal intervention. To obtain the number of deaths in the “other” category, the total number of firearm suicide deaths and firearm homicide deaths were subtracted from the overall firearm deaths in a given year.

* Denotes years in which fewer than 10 firearm suicide or homicide deaths were reported. The CDC suppresses data in which fewer than 10 deaths are reported. For any year in which there were less than 10 firearm homicides or suicides reported, these deaths are collapsed into the “other” category.

Firearm Suicide Rates in South Dakota and the United States
2008-2017

Age-adjusted rate per 100,000

South Dakota
United States
 

Demographics

Firearm Suicide Deaths in South Dakota by Sex
2013-2017

Male
Female

Firearm Suicide Rates in South Dakota by Sex, Race, and Ethnicity
2013-2017

Age-Adjusted Rate Per 100,000

Male
Female

The chart above includes two racial categories: (1) American Indian/Alaska Native and (2) White.

The CDC considers firearm suicide rates based on fewer than 20 deaths “statistically unreliable” and suppresses firearm suicide rates based on fewer than 10 deaths. Fewer than 20 firearm suicides were reported during this time period for the following races and Hispanic Origin category and therefore are omitted from the above chart: American Indian/ Alaska Native females, Asian/ Pacific Islander females and males, Black females and males, and Hispanic/Latino females and males.

Notes:

  • The most recently available CDC data is 2017; as such, 2017 data is used where appropriate.
  • Unless otherwise specified, statistics reflect 5-year averages (2013-2017).
  • All rates listed are age-adjusted in order to allow for accurate comparisons between populations with differing age distributions.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Suicide Deaths and Rates per 100,000. WONDER Online Database, 1999-2017. Available: http://wonder.cdc.gov/ucd-icd10.html.

 

This page was last updated on August 3, 2019.