Gaps in the Records

Unfortunately, suicide information by state has only been released within the past two decades. While we do know that suicide rates for the nation have been rising since the 1950's, we do not know how most individual states rates have changed. This does pose a challenge to sociologist today because there is no past data to which they can compare current rates. However, since the beginning of recorded studies, the West has always had higher suicide rates than the East. While there has been a little fluctuation between the states (for example, Montana was ranked at number one until a new study conducted in 2003 showed Wyoming holds the new number one position), the inter mountain west has consistently held the highest suicide rates in the nation.