fwiw, it's relatively useless to know what the suicide rate is among veterans vs. the population at large.

what is useful is the suicide rate for an EQUIVALENT population in the US. for example...

most veterans are men. men have a MUCH higher suicide rate than women. thus, comparing veteran suicide rate to the population at large is a meaningless comparison.

there are other factors to consider but that's the most glaringly obvious one.

fwiw men commit suicide at about 3-4 times the rate of women. women engage in "parasuicidal behavior" otoh, much more often than men.

translation: when men attempt suicide, they are MUCH more likely to successfully complete the act. when women attempt it, it is much more often the use of pills (generally ineffective) and other such stuff.

taking a bottle of tylenol and 2 wine coolers for example most likely will not kill you. it could result in longterm liver damage, but you will probably live.

on the other hand, sticking a .357 down your throat and pulling the trigger is almost always successful.

i've dealt with hundreds of "parasuicidal" behavior and the majority of ACTUAL suicides i go to is far in favor of men. the # of "cry for help" weak/ineffective 'attempts' otoh strongly skews towards women.

so, my personal experience matches the data.

but again, veterans are mostly men. men commit suicide at a much higher rate. so, comparing veteran suicides to the population at large WITHOUT equalizing by gender (among other things) is meaningless

great points whit, which i should've realized and made myself since i've made the similar point about male suicide on here like a billion times. off the top of my head, the military suicide rate would still be a bit higher than the male suicide rate, but not by much. roughly speaking the male suicide rate across all age groups (military counted in) is about 17-18/100,000 while the military rate reported by cbs is 18-20ish/100,000, so your point is right on.

Are women in the military more likely to kill themselves from a suicide attempt as opposed to the general population?

Well, just wanted to say that since women have started taking antidepressants in record numbers the number of violent suicides in women has also escalated exponentially -- many more women (including adolescents) hanging themselves, shooting themselves, jumping off bridges and even stabbing or cutting themselves to death since Prozac and its sibs have been on the scene. In the old days it's true usually they went in for the "clean, peaceful" suicides -- overdose, carbon monoxide, whatever, but I think if you look at the stats now it's a different picture.

This is not surprising. It's the job that makes them do it. Soldiers' prime directive is to kill. Forget the Army ads. If they can't kill as, for example, after they're discharged, they turn their aggression against themselves. Ditto with cops who have a higher than ordinary suicide rate.