The Pentagon expects to spend about $250 million on suicide prevention in 2025, the largest amount of funds the Defense Department has ever invested.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Suicides in the U.S. military increased in 2023, continuing a long-term trend that the Pentagon has struggled to abate, according to a Defense Department report released on Thursday. The increase is a bit of a setback after the deaths dipped slightly the previous year.

Defense Department Suicide Prevention Office staff said the DoD is making unprecedented investments in suicide prevention in an effort to reduce the deaths.

Suicide rates in the military increased in 2023, a slight uptick from 2022 that adds to a larger, troubling rise over the past decade. The annual report shows 523 servicemembers died by suicide in

Though concerning, military suicide rates over that time period were comparable to those of the wider U.S. population.

Military suicides increased again in 2023, continuing a steady and concerning rise in self-inflicted deaths among servicemembers over more than a decade, according to statistics released by the Defense Department on Thursday.

The suicide rate among active-duty and reserve troops increased in 2023 after the military saw an overall decrease the previous year, according to an annual report released Thursday by the Pentagon. The Pentagon reported an active-duty suicide rate of about 28 suicide deaths for every 100,