COVID-19 and Suicides in the United States: An Early Empirical Assessment

Abstract

2017-2020 data from Medical Examiner Offices of 19 large U.S. counties is collected to study how suicides evolved during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. I use these data to obtain three key findings. First, I document that the total number of suicides per month was increasing during the early months of the pandemic but was below previous years’ levels. Second, using a monthly event-study design to account for seasonal trends and county-level differences in suicides, I find that during April through August 2020, monthly suicides were between 11.2% and 20.5% lower than previous years. Third, I explore whether school closures during the start of the pandemic might be associated with suicides among school-age individuals, and I find that monthly suicides increased relative to previous years for this age group, with the highest increases during the summer.