If you’re thinking about suicide right now, or you’re worried about someone who is, please don’t wait to finish reading. Call or text 988. In Utah, you can also open the SafeUT app or call the Utah Crisis Line at 801-587-3000. Someone is there right now, and they want to hear from you.
By Redwood Family Therapy. Clinically reviewed by Dr. Iesha Gibbons, PhD, LMFT, Clinical Director. Last reviewed September 2026.
Two Utahns die by suicide every day.[1] If you’ve lived here for any length of time, you probably know a family that’s been through it. Maybe yours.
September is Suicide Prevention Month, and every year the same headline comes around: Utah’s rate is one of the highest in the country. That’s true. But the headline usually stops there, and the reasons people offer for it are often more confident than the research allows.
So we wanted to write the honest version. What the numbers actually show. What we still don’t know. And what helps, because that part is clearer than most people think.
What Utah’s Suicide Data Says
Utah tracks suicide carefully, and here’s what we’ve learned from the state’s 2025 numbers that came out this year.[1]
In 2025, 720 Utahns died by suicide. That’s 20.3 for every 100,000 people, and those numbers are up from 669 deaths the year before. Although the number of deaths has increased, Utah’s population has grown, which means the suicide rate itself has remained relatively unchanged over the past five years.[1]
For comparison, in the most recent year Utah and U.S. rates were reported side by side, the national rate was about 14 per 100,000. Utah’s was almost 22.[2] Utah’s suicide rate has remained significantly above the national rate for more than a decade.
A few things stand out with those numbers.
Men die by suicide far more often. In Utah, it’s more than three men for every woman. But the number of women rose by a third in a single year, from 127 to 169. That’s a change worth paying attention to.[1]
Young adults are slipping. Deaths among 18-to-24-year-olds had been falling for six years. In 2025 though, they ticked back up. Deaths among children and teens stayed about the same, which is not necessarily good.[1]
Rates are higher in some rural parts of Utah. The Uinta Basin and southeastern Utah run about 50 percent above the state rate. Utah County is thankfully not among the high-rate areas.[1][2] Those geographic differences are just another reminder that there isn’t one simple explanation for Utah’s suicide rate.
More than half involve a firearm. Fifty-six percent of Utah suicides in 2025 involved a gun. Before 2020, it was about half. Since then, it has stayed between 55 and 60 percent.[1]
Veterans carry a heavier load. Eighty veterans and service members died by suicide in Utah last year, at a rate roughly three times that of the state’s civilian population.[1]
What We Don’t Know About Utah’s Suicide Rate
Here’s where we have to be careful, because much of the information written about Utah suicides doesn’t cover the whole picture.
People naturally want to know why. Why is Utah’s suicide rate so high? Why has it remained above the national average for so long? We’re looking for straightforward answers. That is why we hear the same explanations repeatedly.
But only some of those answers are backed by real research. And the hard truth is that none of them, by themselves, is the answer.
Altitude. Researchers at the University of Utah have spent more than a decade studying why suicide rates climb across the Intermountain West, and one of the ideas they’ve explored is elevation itself.[4] Thinner air means slightly less oxygen, and researchers have examined whether that may affect brain chemistry tied to mood. The geographic patterns are strong enough that a 2018 review in the Harvard Review of Psychiatry took the possibility seriously.[5]
But it’s a pattern, not proof.[6] Altitude may be one piece of a much larger puzzle. It can’t tell you why one particular person becomes suicidal or what your own risk—or your kid’s—might be.
Faith and culture. Religion comes up frequently in conversations about Utah’s suicide rate, but the evidence doesn’t support a simple conclusion. One peer-reviewed study of young Utah men, published in 2002, found lower suicide rates among those with higher religious commitment.[7] Other research has found elevated suicidal thoughts among LGBTQ youth in Utah.[8]
Those studies involve different populations and different questions, and neither establishes religion as the explanation for Utah’s statewide suicide rate. Questions about how faith, family, belonging, identity, community, and mental health interact are real and worth studying. A blog post isn’t going to settle them, and we’re not writing this to pretend otherwise.
“I have noticed there are many people who have been touched by suicide, whether through their own past attempts or thoughts, or through relationships with others who have died by suicide. The pain and trauma this causes is deep. It impacts others on multiple levels and in many relationships, both personal and professional.”
— Dr. Iesha Gibbons, PhD, LMFT, Clinical Director, Redwood Family Therapy
Mental health. There’s one more important piece of the picture. Around 90 percent of people who die by suicide have a diagnosable mental health or substance-use disorder at the time of their death.[3]
That doesn’t give us a single explanation for suicide. But it does point toward something important: treatment and support matter.
What Helps Prevent Suicide in Utah
The reasons Utah’s rate is high are complicated. Fortunately, we know much more about what can reduce risk. Decades of evidence backs these, and many are things ordinary people can do.[3]
Stay connected. The single strongest protective factor against suicide is someone noticing.[3] The friend who’s gone quiet. The teenager who stopped showing up to the things they used to love. The brother who “isn’t really a phone person” anymore.
You don’t need the perfect words. You only need to reach out.
Make your home safer during a crisis. A suicidal crisis can be short—sometimes a matter of minutes.[9] What’s within reach during those minutes matters.
If someone in your house is struggling, secure firearms and store the key or code somewhere they can’t get to them. Do the same with medications.[3][9] Reducing access to highly lethal means during a crisis is an established suicide-prevention strategy.
Think of it the way you’d childproof a house with a toddler: not because you expect the worst, but because a little distance between an impulse and an irreversible action can save a life.
Ask the question directly. “Are you thinking about suicide?”
People are sometimes afraid that asking will plant the idea. Research says it won’t.[10] It tells the person you noticed, you’re willing to talk about it, and you can handle an honest answer.
If they say yes, stay with them, and call 988 together.
Get them to someone who can help. This is where we come in, and we’ll be honest about what that looks like. We get to work on what’s underneath, whether that’s depression, trauma, anxiety, or a relationship that’s coming apart.
Therapy isn’t magic. But the right support, week after week, changes what feels possible.
“In my work, I help my clients create safety by discussing a safety plan. This plan focuses on who they can turn to, what they can do to manage powerful emotions and negative thoughts, and how they can keep themselves safe. In my approach, therapy focuses on healing and growth, which requires work and vulnerability. We explore thoughts, emotions, behaviors, relationships and trauma to move clients through pain and darkness towards balance and peace.”
— Dr. Iesha Gibbons, PhD, LMFT, Clinical Director, Redwood Family Therapy
Know the numbers before you need them. Put these in your phone right now, for yourself or for someone you love.
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Call or text, any hour. 988lifeline.org
- SafeUT app. Free, confidential, staffed by Utah crisis counselors. Built for students but open to anyone. safeut.org
- Utah Crisis Line: 801-587-3000[3]
If You’ve Read This Far
Utah’s suicide rate is high, and the honest answer to “why” is that we only partly know. But you don’t need to solve that question to help the person in front of you.
Notice them.
Ask them.
Make the house safer.
Get them to someone who can help.
If that someone is us, we’re here. If it’s not us, that’s okay too. Just don’t let them carry it alone.
You don’t have to carry this alone
Reach out and we’ll take the first step together.
Contact RedwoodCall 801-341-1919Sources
- Utah Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Public Health Assessment. Suicide in Utah, 2025 data (Health Status Update, 2026). ibis.utah.gov
- Utah DHHS, IBIS Public Health Indicator Report: Suicide Deaths. ibis.utah.gov
- Utah DHHS, Violence and Injury Prevention Program. Suicide Prevention. vipp.utah.gov
- University of Utah Health. “Higher Altitudes Hide Deadly Problem: Increased Risk for Suicide” (2010). healthcare.utah.edu
- Kious BM, Kondo DG, Renshaw PF. “Living High and Feeling Low: Altitude, Suicide, and Depression.” Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 2018. PubMed
- KSL.com. “Utah’s high altitude and high suicide rate warrant further discussion, clinicians agree.” ksl.com
- Hilton SC, Fellingham GW, Lyon JL. “Suicide Rates and Religious Commitment in Young Adult Males in Utah.” American Journal of Epidemiology, 2002. PubMed
- BYU Studies. “Religion and Sexual Orientation as Predictors of Utah Youth Suicidality.” byustudies.byu.edu
- Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Means Matter. “Duration of Suicidal Crises.” hsph.harvard.edu
- Dazzi T, Gribble R, Wessely S, Fear NT. “Does asking about suicide and related behaviours induce suicidal ideation? What is the evidence?” Psychological Medicine, 2014. PubMed