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Who is at risk?

While the link between suicide and mental disorders (in particular, depression and alcohol use disorders) is well established in high-income countries, many suicides happen impulsively in moments of crisis with a breakdown in the ability to deal with life stresses, such as financial problems, relationship break-up or chronic pain and illness.

In addition, experiencing conflict, disaster, violence, abuse, or loss and a sense of isolation are strongly associated with suicidal behaviour. Suicide rates are also high amongst vulnerable groups who experience discrimination, such as refugees and migrants; indigenous peoples; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex (LGBTI) persons; and prisoners. By far the strongest risk factor for suicide is a previous suicide attempt.

 

Prevention and control

Suicides are preventable. There are a number of measures that can be taken at population, sub-population and individual levels to prevent suicide and suicide attempts. LIVE LIFE, WHO’s approach to suicide prevention, recommends the following key effective evidence-based interventions:

limit access to the means of suicide (e.g. pesticides, firearms, certain medications);
interact with the media for responsible reporting of suicide;
foster socio-emotional life skills in adolescents;
early identify, assess, manage and follow up anyone who is affected by suicidal behaviours.
These need to go hand-in-hand with the following foundational pillars: situation analysis, multisectoral collaboration, awareness raising, capacity building, financing, surveillance and monitoring and evaluation.

Suicide prevention efforts require coordination and collaboration among multiple sectors of society, including the health sector and other sectors such as education, labour, agriculture, business, justice, law, defence, politics, and the media. These efforts must be comprehensive and integrated as no single approach alone can make an impact on an issue as complex as suicide.

Suicide prevention

Suicide rates, crude

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Indicator name:
Suicide mortality rate (per 100 000 population)
Short name:
Suicide rate
Data type:
Rate
Indicator Id:
4664
Topic:
Mortality and burden of disease
Rationale:
 Measuring how many people die each year and why they died is one of the most important means – along with gauging how diseases and injuries are affecting people  – for assessing the effectiveness of a country’s health system. Cause-of-death statistics help health authorities determine their focus for public health actions.
Definition:
Number of suicide deaths in a year, divided by the population and multiplied by 100 000.  
Disaggregation:
Age, Sex :
M&E Framework:
Outcome
Method of estimation:
The estimates are derived from the WHO Global Health Estimates (GHE). Detailed methods are available here, and summarized below. For countries with a high-quality vital registration system including information on cause of death, the vital registration that member states submit to the WHO Mortality Database were used, with adjustments where necessary, e.g. for under-reporting of deaths, unknown age and sex, and ill-defined causes of deaths. For countries without high-quality death registration data, cause of death estimates are calculated using other data, including household surveys with verbal autopsy, sample or sentinel registration systems, special studies. These estimates represent the best estimates of WHO, computed using standard categories, definitions and methods to ensure cross-country comparability, and may not be the same as official national estimates. Due to changes in input data and methods, the revisions of GHE are not comparable to previously published WHO estimates.
Method of estimation of global and regional aggregates:
Weighted average using population estimates from the World Population Prospect, produced by the UN Population Division, as denominators.
Other possible data sources:
Household surveys
Surveillance systems; All references to Kosovo should be understood to be in the context of the United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999)
Sample or sentinel registration systems
Special studies
Preferred data sources:
Civil registration with complete coverage and medical certification of cause of death
Unit of Measure:
per 100,000 population
Expected frequency of data dissemination:
Every 2-3 years
Expected frequency of data collection:
Annual
Comments:
High-income countries have systems in place for collecting information on causes of death in the population. Many low- and middle-income countries do not have such systems, and the numbers of deaths from specific causes have to be estimated from incomplete data. Improvements in producing high quality cause-of-death data are crucial for improving health and reducing preventable deaths in these countries. Please refer to the Global Health Estimates methods document for more details, including confidence intervals for comparisons of age-specific rates across countries or time.
Contact person email:
healthstat@who.int
Name:
healthstat@who.int
Links:
World Population Prospects. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division
WHO methods and data sources for country-level causes of death, 2000-2019
Indicator Metadata Registry List

GHO SDGSUICIDE Crude suicide rates (per 100 000 population) REGIONAL DOT PLOT TEMPLATE - 1 DECIMAL

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GHO SDGSUICIDE All age groups XTABLE TEMPLATE D 3x2 IND, TIME, DIM1 x SPATIAL, DIM2 Crude suicide rates (per 100 000 population)

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Suicide rates, crude, 10-year age groups

GHO SDGSUICIDE Crude suicide rates (per 100 000 population), 10-year age groups XTABLE TEMPLATE D 3x2 IND, TIME, DIM1 x SPATIAL, DIM2

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Suicide rates, crude, 15-29 and 30-49 years of age

GHO SDGSUICIDE Crude suicide rates (per 100 000 population), 15-29 and 30-49 years XTABLE TEMPLATE D 3x2 IND, TIME, DIM1 x SPATIAL, DIM2

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Suicide rates, crude, among adolescents 15-19 years

GHO SDGSUICIDE Crude suicide rates (per 100 000 population), 15-19 years XTABLE TEMPLATE D 3x2 IND, TIME, DIM1 x SPATIAL, DIM2

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More suicide data products

Mental Health, Brain Health and Substance Use
Our work involves mental health promotion and the prevention of mental, neurological and substance use disorders. We support the expansion of access to affordable, quality care for everyone who needs it.
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