Abstract:Suicide rates in the US have been rising for more than 2 decades, with rates among veterans being significantly higher than those of nonveterans. Although there is considerable research investigating factors that may influence these increases, we are unaware of any information regarding suicide risk among military retirees. The military retiree population includes veterans who have completed the required years of service to be eligible for retirement pay and may be subject to recall to military duty or who have medically retired based on a qualifying disability. We estimate that retirees comprised nearly 14% of the veteran population in 2022. To document suicide outcomes among the population of veterans who retired from the military, we performed a retrospective study examining suicide risk among military retirees compared to veterans overall.