Suicide and homicide rates have increased in recent years among young people in the U.S., according to a new federal report. The suicide rate among people ages 10 to 24 years old climbed 56% between 2007 and 2017, according to the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rate of homicide deaths decreased by 23% from 2007 to 2014 but then increased by 18% through 2017.Violent death, including homicide and suicide, is a major cause of premature death for the age group. Around 2010, the death rate of suicides among adolescents and young adults surpassed the rate of homicide deaths, according to the report.

The chances of a person in this age range dying by suicide are greater than homicide when it used to be the other way around, says Sally Curtin, a statistician at the CDC and author of the report. When the leading cause of death among our youth grows, it obliges all of us to pay attention and find out what’s going on.

Suicide rates have generally increased in the U.S. across all age groups and ethnicities, rising about 30% from 1999 to 2016. In 2017, suicide was the second leading cause of death among people aged 10 to 24, after unintentional injuries such as car crashes or drug overdoses. Homicide deaths rank third, according to a June 2019 CDC report.

Ms. Curtin and her colleague, Meloni Heron, pulled death certificate data from the national vital statistics system CDCs, looking at the leading cause of death for people between the ages of 10 and 24. They analyzed data for the years 2000-2017, the last year of CDCs data available.

Both suicides and homicides among the age group were relatively stable between 2000 and 2007, the report said.

Unfortunately, its not surprising, but it’s very disturbing, said Benjamin Shane, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at northShore Medical Group in Illinois, who says he is increasingly seeing adolescent patients at risk of suicide. To see it statistically across the country strikes me differently.

Despite concerns about a rise in suicides, researchers are unsure of the exact causes. Rising depression among Teens, drug use, stress and access to firearms may be factors that could be factors, experts say.

Some mental health experts suggest that social media use among Teens may be fueling a rise in mental illness and leading to an increased risk of suicide, and some early research has linked smartphone use to anxiety, depression and sleep deprivation among Teens.

The recent appearance of suicide in the media and on the Internet can also increase the mortality rate from suicide, experts say.

The increase in homicide deaths in 2015 and 2016 was mostly concentrated in several cities, such as St. Louis and Chicago.

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According to youth violence experts, the rise in homicides is likely linked to drug markets, poverty and the breakdown of police-community relations, but it is difficult to determine what influences national change.

School shootings account for less than 2% of all youth homicide deaths in the U.S., according to the CDC. While school-related mass shootings attract significant attention, they likely don’t affect the national trend.

Federal Bureau of investigation data for 2018 show that the slight upward trend in youth homicide deaths from 2014 to 2017 has begun to change again.

Copyright 2019 Dow Jones