At the college where I teach, over 50% of the students say they have considered suicide in the past year. About 52%, with about 54% for women and 50% for men. 20-22% have considered suicide in the past month. 2% have attempted suicide in the past month. The degree of "planning" they report (including among those who attempted) ranges from virtually none to extensive planning. But merely thinking about suicide is pretty common in college age people, at least in the US (and the Canadian data are only a little better, from what I can tell).
Feelings of hopelessness, for example, are reported as "occasional" by about 55-60% of the students in college in California. There's some inter-generational research to indicate that this percentage is higher than it was 50 years ago, although it's very hard to know. Certainly, it's higher than it was 25 years ago.
If we look just at students over 24, the rate of thinking about suicide is considerably less.
My view is that if killing oneself comes up frequently or high on the list of "problem solving options," then, when circumstances get dire, that option moves way up the list. Does this mean planning? I don't think so. I think it means "risk." Certainly, people who have never thought about suicide still commit suicide, but it doesn't appear to be as likely.
The helicopter parent phenomena (in all its aspects) has been associated with this increase in suicidality (which is not seen across all the world's cultures and definitely seems to affect young adults who have been protected from adult responsibilities and then are suddenly thrust into assuming such responsibilities, because the suicidality among college students is higher than among non-students who are still living at home). Dorm life, being away from home, attempting to start a new household with a romantic partner all correlate with higher incidence of suicidal thoughts. There also appear to be some bio-markers (in the brain) of those who are more likely to attempt and then to complete suicide (this data is from inpatient psychiatric units).
So, one of the reasons I followed this case as closely as I did is that Kam and Bryer ticked some boxes for suicidality: age, sex, lived at home until very recently, very little work experience, very little experience solving complex life problems and, apparently, the sense of at least one parent that they might go out "in a blaze of glory." Making one's life meaningful, even in death, is a big issue for all of us, but late teens and early 20's does bring it to critical mass (compared to being 12 or 70). Anyway, the demographics of suicide are changing, such that the average age is dropping.
Depression and Suicide Rates Are Rising Sharply in Young Americans, New Report Says
Extensive suicide is when suicidal people take others with them.
). Why do you think they went all the way to Manitoba to kill themselves if suicide was the goal all along.Why the heck did they travel for 3 days to go there (and it seems like they were planning to go there specifically because there was nothing else there?). 
