Suicide rates are lower in U.S. counties with more health insurance coverage and broadband internet access and higher income, a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis suggests.

The report analyzed more than 49,000 suicide deaths in 2022 from the National Vital Statistics database. Researchers compared county suicide rates to the percent of residents with health insurance coverage, households with broadband access and households with income above the federal poverty level.

The overall U.S. suicide rate in 2022 was 14.2 per 100,000 people, the CDC report said. Suicide rates were highest among non-Hispanic American Indians or Alaska Natives (27.1 per 100,000 population) and White people (17.6 per 100,000). The suicide rate for boys and men was nearly four times higher than for girls and women (23 per 100,000 for males vs. 5.9 per 100,000 for females). Rural residents and those ages 45 to 64 (19 per 100,000) and 24 to 44 (18.9 per 100,000) had the highest suicide rate, according to the CDC report.

Compared with counties that had the lowest level of the three community factors, counties with the most health insurance coverage had a 26 percent lower suicide rate, a 44 percent lower rate in counties with the most broadband internet access and a 13 percent lower rate in counties with the highest household income.

The three county-level factors were more strongly associated with lower suicide rates in some groups disproportionately affected by suicide, including non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native people.

“There are several potential explanations for how these factors might protect against suicide,” the researchers wrote. For example, broadband internet may help people access jobs and social connectedness, the researchers noted, and those in higher-income communities have a higher ability to meet basic needs.

The report “adds to our ever-growing knowledge base of suicide risk factors and will contribute to how we shape future suicide prevention efforts,” Debra Houry, the CDC’s chief medical officer, said in a news release.

The analysis may help future public health efforts target upstream factors that “prevent suicide crises before they start” while “improving the conditions where people are born, grow, work, live, and age,” the report said.