The current study addresses whether anxiety disorders have a significant impact on suicidal behavior using data from the Netherlands Mental Health and Incidence Survey a large, Dutch, general population survey. We examined the impact of anxiety disorders on suicidal behavior in 2 stages. First, we estimated whether the presence of lifetime anxiety disorder diagnoses had a cross-sectional association with lifetime suicidal behavior at baseline assessment. Second, we examined whether anxiety disorders at baseline had a significant impact on first-ever incidence of SI and SAs at follow-up assessments. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the first prospective examination of whether anxiety disorders predict subsequent onset of suicidal behavior in a large population-based sample