CLOSE Veteran suicide rates remain high seven years after the rate of suicides by soldiers more than doubled and the Army's effort to reduce the tragic pace. Experts worry the problem is a "new normal." 
 
 Twenty veterans a day committed suicide in 2014, a trend made worse by high rates among young male veterans and the suicidal tendencies among female veterans, according to the VA. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images) 
 
 An average of 20 veterans a day committed suicide in 2014, a trend that reflects record high rates among young men fresh out of the military and growing numbers of women taking their lives, the first actual count of suicides among former service members shows. 
 
 The Department of Veterans Affairs previously had only estimated suicides, saying in 2010 there was an average of 22 a day. The 2014 data released Thursday is based on a precise tabulation of the 7,403 deaths. 
 
 David Shulkin, VA undersecretary for health, noted the slight decline from the 2010 estimate, but added, "it's still far too high." 
 
 The 2014 count is the first slice of a massive examination of 55 million veteran death records dating back to 1979. Shulkin said that a final report due in several weeks will detail more suicide trends. 
 
 The VA found the worst suicide pattern among male veterans, ages 18-29. Their suicide rate was 86 per 100,000 people, nearly four times the rate among active-duty service members last year. 
 
 By contrast, the overall U.S. suicide rate is 13 per 100,000 people, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. 
 
 The new figures show the suicide rate among young female veterans, ages 18-29, was 33 per 100,000 — more than double the overall U.S. rate. 
 
 Shulkin said the suicide rate among all female veterans was more than double that of women who didn't serve in the military. 
 
 "It is difficult to understand why that is happening. It is one of the things that I think will become a central research question for us," he said. 
 
 Shulkin said more research is needed to determine whether women who served closer to combat or experienced sexual trauma in the military put them at greater risk of taking their own lives. 
 
 He said the VA has taken several "aggressive" steps to deal with the high suicide rates. They include adding staff to the crisis hotline for veterans (800-273-8255), identifying veterans at high risk, increasing mental health counselors and expanding mental health therapy via telephone. 
 
 In 2014, veterans accounted for 18% of all suicides in the United States, but made up only 8.5% of the population. In 2010, veterans accounted for 22% of U.S. suicides and 9.7% of the population. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/29jR8hl ||||| This story was originally published July 7, 2016, at 6:03 a.m. EST. It has since been updated. 
 
 Roughly 20 veterans a day commit suicide nationwide, according to new data from the Department of Veterans Affairs — a figure that dispels the often quoted, but problematic, “22 a day” estimate yet solidifies the disturbing mental health crisis the number implied. 
 
 In 2014, the latest year available, more than 7,400 veterans took their own lives, accounting for 18 percent of all suicides in America. Veterans make up less than 9 percent of the U.S. population. 
 
 About 70 percent of veterans who took their own lives were not regular users of VA services. 
 
 The new data, being released publicly today, is the most comprehensive suicide study ever conducted by the department. 
 
 For years, the department has estimated the veterans suicide toll nationwide at around 22 individuals a day, but veterans groups noted numerous gaps in how that estimate was constructed. Most notably, the numbers were based on information from only about 20 states and did not contain full military records from the Defense Department. 
 
 The new study includes more than 50 million veterans’ records from 1979 to 2014, including every state. The data, compiled over the last four years, also comes from the Centers for Disease Control. 
 
 VA officials said in a statement that the information will allow them to “inform our suicide prevention programs and policies, especially for groups at elevated risk for suicide, including older and female veterans.” 
 
 Together, the numbers point to a significant mental health risk for individuals who served in the military, though the specific reasons remain unclear. 
 
 Researchers found that the risk of suicide for veterans is 21 percent higher when compared to civilian adults. From 2001 to 2014, as the civilian suicide rate rose about 23.3 percent, the rate of suicide among veterans jumped more than 32 percent. 
 
 The problem is particularly worrisome among female veterans, who saw their suicide rates rise more than 85 percent over that time, compared to about 40 percent for civilian women. 
 
 And roughly 65 percent of all veteran suicides in 2014 were for individuals 50 years or older, many of whom spent little or no time fighting in the most recent wars. 
 
 Providing support and assistance to suicidal veterans has proven difficult, in part because of the lack of data on the scope of the problem. 
 
 In recent years, VA has hired 5,300 mental health providers and support personnel and upgraded its Veterans Crisis Line in response to the problem. It has also elevated the profile of its suicide prevention office within the department and launched new partnerships with community health providers to offer counseling to veterans. 
 
 Officials hope to use the data to further expand those offerings, targeting specific regions and populations within the veterans community to more effectively deliver care. 
 
 Veterans groups hailed the new research as a critical step ahead in addressing the problem. 
 
 “Of course, this is still 20 [deaths] too many,” said Joe Chenelly, executive director at AMVETS. “But we are grateful for the deeper, more accurate data analysis. Much still needs to be done, and this gives us a better idea where to focus.” 
 
 Full year-by-year and demographic breakdowns of the data are expected to be released by the department by the end of July. 
 
 Leo Shane III covers Congress, Veterans Affairs and the White House for Military Times. He can be reached at lshane@militarytimes.com. 
 
 Patricia Kime covers military and veterans health care and medicine for Military Times. She can be reached at pkime@militarytimes.com ||||| The Department of Veterans Affairs released sobering new statistics today about veteran suicide rates in the United States. 
 
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 According to the VA, an average of 20 veterans died from suicide every day in 2014. 
 
 The VA examined over 55 million veteran records from 1979 to 2014 from every state in the nation. The last time the VA conducted a study like this was in 2010, but that report included data from only 20 states. 
 
 In 2014, 7,403 American veterans committed suicide, out of 41,425 suicides among U.S. adults that year. That's just under 18 percent, down from 22 percent in 2010. 
 
 Today’s report also included comparisons between civilians and veterans. From 2001 to 2014, the VA found, suicides among U.S. adult civilians increased 23 percent while veteran suicides increased 32 percent — making the risk of suicide 21 percent greater for veterans than civilians (after controlling for age and gender). 
 
 Older veterans face a higher risk of suicide, the data showed. In 2014 about 65 percent of veterans who died from suicide were 50 years or older. 
 
 The VA said it was “aggressively” undertaking new measures to combat suicide, including same-day access for veterans with urgent mental health needs. According to the VA, techniques like predictive modeling can help determine which veterans may be at the highest risk of suicide so that health care providers can get involved earlier. 
 
 “Veterans in the top 0.1 percent of risk, who have a 43-fold increased risk of death from suicide within a month, can be identified before clinical signs of suicide are evident in order to save lives before a crisis occurs,” the VA said in a statement. 
 
 Data in this analysis supported that veterans who seek VA services may be able to decrease their risk of suicide. The report said that since 2001, the rate of suicide among veterans who used VA services increased by 8.8 percent while the rate of suicide among veterans who did not use VA services increased by 38.6 percent. 
 
 The VA treated more than 1.6 million veterans for mental health in 2015.
– The first official count of suicides among veterans is grim: 7,403 veterans committed suicide in 2014, or an average of 20 per day, according to Veterans Affairs, which reviewed data from every state. The group estimated there were 22 veteran suicides per day in 2010, but had never taken an official count, reports USA Today. The decline from the 2010 estimate is nothing to celebrate, according to David Shulkin, VA's undersecretary for health, who says the most recent number is "still far too high." Veterans accounted for 18% of all suicides in the US in 2014, though they made up just 8.5% of the population. About 65% of the veterans were 50 or older and 70% were not regular recipients of VA services, reports the Military Times. Among male veterans aged 18 to 29, the suicide rate was 86 per 100,000 people; the US suicide rate as a whole is 13 per 100,000. The rate for female veterans aged 18 to 29 was 33 per 100,000. Suicide rates among American females jumped 40% from 2001 to 2014 but 85% among female veterans. "It is difficult to understand why that is happening. It is one of the things that I think will become a central research question for us," says Shulkin, who hopes to discover whether sexual trauma or combat service increases a woman's suicide risk. The VA says it is "aggressively" tackling the suicide issue, including by offering same-day service to veterans with urgent mental health needs, per ABC News. A final report on veteran deaths since 1979 is due out in the coming weeks.