Suicide Worldwide In 2019: WHO:
A report titled Suicide worldwide in 2019 was published by the World Health Organization (WHO).
- Suicide is defined as death caused by self-directed injurious behavior with intent to die as a result of the behavior.
Suicides in 2019:
- The Covid-19-pandemic has increased mental stress globally. However a crisis was already in place in 2019. Approximately 7,03,000 people or one in a 100, died by suicide in 2019.
- The global age-standardized suicide rate was 9.0 per 1,00,000 population for 2019.
- Many of these were young people. More than half of global suicides (58%) occurred before the age of 50 years. Suicide was the fourth-leading cause of death among young people aged 15-29 globally in 2019.
- Some 77% of global suicides in 2019 occurred in low- and middle-income countries.
Regional Data :
- Africa, Europe and South-East Asia recorded suicide rates higher than the global average.
- This number was highest in the Africa region (11.2) followed by Europe (10.5) and South-East Asia (10.2).
- In 20 years (2000-2019), the global suicide rate had decreased by 36%.
- The decrease ranged from 17% in the Eastern Mediterranean Region to 47% in the European Region and 49% in the Western The Region of the Americas recorded a substantial 17% increase in the suicide rate during the same period and has been an exception.
Suicides in India:
- India has the highest suicide rate in the Southeast Asian region.
- A total of 1,34,516 cases of suicide were reported in 2018 in India, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.
- While the rate of suicide was 9.9 in 2017, it increased to 10.2 in 2018.