Pentagon Delays Critical Annual Suicide Report

The Pentagon's annual military suicide report is delayed with no clear release timeline, raising concerns about accountability and transparency. The report, which is typically published each fall with data from the previous calendar year, serves as a vital measure for tracking suicide trends and prevention progress.

Researchers and lawmakers rely on this data to inform efforts to combat military suicide. The Department of Defense has provided no explanation for the delay and has not responded to recent inquiries. This reporting delay affects not only the annual report but also quarterly data for 2025.

The Department of Defense is behind schedule in releasing its annual suicide report, a document usually published each fall. This report provides suicide statistics from the previous calendar year, informing Congress, researchers, and senior leaders about efforts to combat military suicide.

The DoD is also delayed in releasing its quarterly suicide data for 2025, with third-quarter figures still unpublished months later than usual. Queries regarding the annual report's release date sent in mid-December received a response stating, "The Department has nothing to announce at this time." Follow-up questions regarding the reason for the delay and potential publication dates went unanswered by both the Pentagon and the Defense Suicide Prevention Office.

It remains unclear whether the delay is connected to a government shutdown.

According to Ron Kessler, a principal investigator on a long-term Army suicide study and a professor at Harvard Medical School, the monthslong delay is unlikely to significantly affect immediate research or prevention efforts. Researchers typically depend on detailed data that reveals patterns and circumstances surrounding deaths.

However, Kessler emphasizes that the larger issue concerns accountability, public transparency, and oversight. He notes that publishing the data allows the outside world to understand the situation and holds organizations accountable. "Publishing is letting the outside world know what's going on," Kessler said. "And that's useful for holding organizations accountable."

While the DoD and Department of Veterans Affairs have implemented various suicide prevention efforts, including testing artificial intelligence to identify at-risk individuals, the annual reports are essential for showing progress and identifying areas needing improvement. "It's important for the data to be out there," Kessler added, "not to ever be to a point where we say what's not being shown anymore."

Suicide deaths among service members rose during the COVID-19 pandemic. The most recent publicly available data, from calendar year 2023, showed a small increase over the previous year. According to the Defense Suicide Prevention Office, military suicide deaths have increased gradually since 2011.

The 2023 report highlighted that young enlisted men accounted for the largest share of suicide deaths in the US military, mirroring broader national trends where men are nearly four times more likely to die by suicide than women. Firearms were involved in roughly half of all US suicide deaths in 2023, and previous military reports have identified access to firearms as a significant risk factor, particularly for younger enlisted personnel.

Despite the lack of current data, some military leaders have recently emphasized suicide prevention. In November, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll directed supervisors to conduct daily check-ins with subordinates through mid-January. While the initiative was initially praised, some troops and supervisors described the mandatory directive as unintentionally burdensome.

The reporting delays coincide with organizational changes inside the Army. A September memo highlighted plans to disband the directorate responsible for overseeing soldier quality-of-life issues, known as the G-9, citing "administrative convenience." The responsibilities of that office have since been folded into the service's human resources directorate.

Army spokeswoman Heather J. Hagan confirmed the change, stating that the service remains committed to troop and family quality of life. However, it is unclear how this structural change may affect oversight of soldier well-being or how suicide prevention priorities are being evaluated while the Pentagon's annual suicide data remains unpublished.