If you want to know more about the suicide and depression rates in different countries, read our list about the WHO suicide and depression statistics by 11 countries.
If you carefully read or listen to the daily news, you will see that there is at least one suicide case in the world, and often from your country or region. At times, even from your own city or neighborhood. We don’t think much of the reasons why people fall into depression or commit suicide until such issue affects us personally, or until someone familiar or really close to us commits it. At that point, the only question we want to answer is: why? There are many reasons in general why people decide to get over with their lives, such as poverty, depression, mental illness, losing their beloved ones and so on. It has been also said that certain professions or certain profiles of people are more likely to commit suicide, and we discussed the issue in our list of 11 Professions with the Highest Suicide Rates in Australia.
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Generally speaking, people usually expect that the highest suicide and depression rates are actually within countries that are not developed or are completely poor. However, the reality is somewhat different, which you will see from the list. Small or big, rich or poor, African or American, the countries or states are quite diversified in all the other matters, but at some points, they have a very similar suicide rate. This brings us to the conclusion that the suicide issue is a very deep and complex psychological issue that should be treated individually, rather than on a country level. Unfortunately, depression is not easy to deal with since we are often not aware that some people may suffer from it. Eventually, the statistics are there just to provide us with the numbers, without going further into the problem.
In order to make this list, I used the official website of the World Health Organization (WHO), which provided the list of all its country members. I made sure to include the developed and undeveloped countries equally. Since there is no newer data, I used the one from 2015 (they provide the statistics every five years). Also, taking into consideration that there is a lack of the specific data by countries regarding depression, the final numbers portray the numbers of suicides per 100,000 people per year, including both sexes, but also providing separate data on male and female ranks. However, the overall data in terms of depression was provided, saying that the 16 million adults in the United States suffered from depression in 2012, being 6,9% of the population, while on the global level the number is 350 million people, that is 5% of the world’s population. It is also quite interesting that the suicide rate among males is quite bigger than among females, although it has been proven that women suffer more when it comes to psychological issues. An article that Guardian published tackles that issue, providing the simple explanation for the phenomenon. It claims that 7% of women and 4% of men attempt to commit suicide, but eventually the number of deaths is bigger among men, due to the simple fact: women tend to use rather “weak” means, such as pills, while men usually use guns or hanging, and their attempts result in final death in most of the cases. The most intriguing thing is actually the fact that there are no countries where the number of female suicides is bigger than those committed by males.
I know that the issue of suicide is a very sensitive one and that some of you will not feel comfortable to continue. Sometimes it is hard to read about it because it can maybe remind you of something that happened. However, in order to deal with the problems in the world and to know how to recognize them, we must start from the beginning, and this data on the WHO suicide and depression statistics by 11 countries is maybe the right thing.
11. Bosnia and Herzegovina
Number of suicides per 100,000 people per year – both sexes: 4.4
On the annual level, 7.1 males and 1.9 females in 100,000 people commit suicide in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
10. Italy
Number of suicides per 100,000 people per year – both sexes: 5.4
Italy is a country where 8.7 males and 2.2 females commit suicide annually according to WHO, within 100, 000 people.
9. Afghanistan
Number of suicides per 100,000 people per year – both sexes: 7.1
Following the same measures, the number of males committing suicide in Afghanistan is 10.9, while the number of females is 3.1.
8. United Kingdom
Number of suicides per 100,000 people per year – both sexes: 7.4
Annually, 11.7 males and 3.2 females out of 100,000 people in the United Kingdom, that ranked 8th on our list of WHO suicide and depression statistics by 11 countries commit suicide.
7. Luxembourg
Number of suicides per 100,000 people per year – both sexes: 8.5
The number of suicides committed by 100,000 people in Luxembourg is 11.6 for males and 5.2 for females.
6. Chile
Number of suicides per 100,000 people per year – both sexes: 9.1
15.3 males and 3.3 females in 100,000 people commit suicide in Chile per a year.
5. Canada
Number of suicides per 100,000 people per year – both sexes: 10.4
The number of males committing suicide in Canada annually is 15.3, while the number of females is 3.6, per 100,000 people. Canada has around 35.85 million of people living there, making the number very big, which is why we put it on our list of WHO suicide and depression statistics by 11 countries.
4. United States
Number of suicides per 100,000 people per year – both sexes: 12.6
19.5 males and 5.8 females take their own lives annually in the United States, and if you take into consideration that those numbers stand for 100,000 of the population, the number is actually quite big.
3. Belarus
Number of suicides per 100,000 people per year – both sexes: 19.1
35 males and 5.4 females commit suicide every year in Belarus, out of 100,000 people, and this is one of the countries where the gap between male and female suicides is quite big.
2. South Korea
Number of suicides per 100,000 people per year – both sexes: 24.1
The number of males in South Korea, the second on our list of WHO suicide and depression statistics by 11 countries committing suicide in 100,000 people is 36.1, while the number of females is 13.4.
1. Sri Lanka
Number of suicides per 100,000 people per year – both sexes: 34.6
This country is the first on the list of WHO suicide and depression statistics by 11 countries, with 58.8 males and 13.3 females committing suicide annually.
