Suicide Deaths
This dashboard contains data on suicide deaths in Virginia.
In 2003, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner implemented the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) in Virginia. The NVDRS is a public health data collection system designed to better understand the breadth and scope of fatal violence and its victims and to support data-driven violence prevention efforts.
The NVDRS links information in six types of violent deaths – homicides, suicides, accidental firearm deaths, legal interventions, deaths due to acts of terrorism, and undetermined deaths likely related to violence – using a variety of death investigation sources such as forensic pathology, law enforcement, forensic science, and vital records.
The VVDRS is the operation and reporting system of the NVDRS within Virginia, and uses the methodology, definitions, coding schema, and database of the NVDRS. NVDRS is funded through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and now operates in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Virginia was among the first six states to implement the NVDRS, and the first statewide medical examiner system to do so.
These data reflect deaths that were classified as a suicide among individuals ages 11 or older. Population data utilized in rate calculates is adjusted to reflect individuals 11 or older.
Filtering Data
Hovering over a locality, CSB, or region on the map, or over a data point on a graph will highlight exact data values. Select a locality, CSB, or region using the dropdown menu to filter the data to that location. Don't want to see everything? Use filters to select data from certain years and demographic subgroups.
Downloading Data
The download button at the bottom right of each dashboard allows you to download a PDF or image of the current dashboard view. At the top of each tab, you will also see an information icon. Hover over the icon to read more about the data sources and links to access the raw data, if available.
Data Considerations
Data suppression criteria follows the criteria provided by the data source. Suppression criteria may vary across data sources and is used to maintain confidentiality.
Many data tabs include the option to view data as a count and as a rate. Count data is useful in looking at the total quantity of an event but may be influenced by the size of the underlying population. A rate means that the data was standardized to a common denominator and can be compared across geographic or demographic groups.