While World Suicide Rates Fall, U.S. Suicide Rates Rise Between 1990 and 2021, the global suicide rate fell nearly 30 per cent, from around 10 deaths per 100,000 people to about seven deaths per 100,000 people, according to an analysis by Jiseung Kang at Korea University in South Korea and her colleagues. They collected data on suicide deaths from 102 countries using the WHO’s mortality database. “Many countries have been recognising more and more that suicide is preventable,” says Paul Nestadt at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. As such, more of them have enacted policies to reduce suicides, such as restricting access to pesticides, firearms or certain medications – and these policies seem to have been successful. Suicide rates decreased across every continent except the Americas, where rates grew more than 11 per cent since 2000. There, suicide increased in several countries, including Mexico, Paraguay and the US. Between 2000 and 2020, the suicide rate in the US jumped from about 9.6 deaths to 12.5 deaths per 100,000 people. The researchers believe this is because of an increase in firearm suicides and the mental health effects of the 2008 financial crisis.
