Suicide is in every country, race, sect, gender, and group. Statistics show that the most suicidal countries in the world have the greatest percentage of stress and non-ethical situations. However, it cannot be predicted, though, who is at risk of suicide, including mental well-being and drug misuse. Alerts, death, sharing feelings of sadness, ideas of suicide, drug abuse, or alcohol are the main reasons for suicidal thoughts in one’s mind. Psychiatrists and doctors are discussing suicide hotline concerns and thoughts. The lowering suicide rates in the world are in the Caribbean Bahamas, Jamaica, Grenada, Barbados, and Antigua and Barbuda. While the questions what drives people into taking such extreme measures and how best to prevent them, a study of UNIHO statistics reveals which has the most suicides per person per head.
So, the brief here are the ten nations with the highest rates of suicide:
- Lesotho
- Guyana
- Eswatini
- South Korea
- Kiribati
- Micronesia
- Lithuania
- Suriname
- Russia
- South Africa
10. South Africa
Current Population: | 60,756,135 |
Estimated Population By UN (July 2022): | 60,620,895 |
Total Suicide Rate: | 23.5 per 100k people |
The birth rate in South Africa is 19.995 per 1,000 people, while the mortality rate is 9.3 per 1,000. South Africa has a birth rate that is more than twice that of death. Moreover, the fertility rate is 2.372 births per woman, which is significantly higher than the population replacement rate of 2.1 births per woman. While both the birth and fertility rates are high, they have been declining annually, showing that South Africa’s population growth is moderating.
9. Russia
Current Population: | 145,822,990 |
Estimated Population By UN (July 2022): | 145,805,947 |
Total Suicide Rate: | 25.1 per 100k people |
The population of Russia fluctuates from 148.37 million to 143.25 between 1993 and 2008. It had an abnormally high death rate during this time. Since then, the population has increased to 145.93 million, but it is expected that the population will remain at its peak by the end of 2020 and decline again due to the impacts of a global pandemic of Covid-19.
Russia has a fertility rate of 1.58 births, a female among the world’s lowest fertility, less than 2.1 births a woman in replacement. Men in Russia are to commit suicide with 55.9 suicides per 100,000 population. Simultaneously, women recorded 9.4 fatalities per 100 000. Several reasons are linked to suicide, including proximity to fatal arms and alcoholism.
While forecasting Russia’s future is difficult, it is anticipated that by 2050, Russia would have dropped from ninth to seventeenth place in terms of population. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has stated that he intends to increase Russia’s shrinking population by encouraging immigration and increasing birth rates, although predictions show that the country’s population will decline from 142 million in 2014 to only 128 million by 2050.
8. Suriname
Current Population: | 595,865 |
Estimated Population By UN (July 2022): | 596,831 |
Total Suicide Rate: | 26.1 per 100k people |
In accordance with the latest UN data, Suriname currently has a population of 590,800, but it is declining for the last few years. The United Nations estimates that there are 591,800 people on 1 July 2021. Currently, it is ranked as the eighth highest suicidal nation in the world under the estimation of the World Health Organization.
The nation records 26.1 suicides per 100,000 inhabitants. The mortality rate of males per hundred thousand was also 34.7, with a death rate of women being 10.9 per hundred thousand. Minors are considered vulnerable groups, while suicide is linked to poverty, household violence, and alcohol abuse.
7. Lithuania
Current Population: | 2,667,297 |
Estimated Population By UN (July 2022): | 2,661,708 |
Total Suicide Rate: | 26.1 per 100k people |
Lithuania is declining in population, losing approximately 1.5% of its population annually in 2020. Lithuania is the world of suicide that lead it on the list of most suicidal country in the world. This ranking is not foreign to Lithuania, but it also has high levels of depression. By 2016, the WHO recorded 31.9 suicides per 100,000 population. Men still face 58.1 deaths per 100,000 population in Lithuania, while 9.5 deaths Per 100,000 women are reported.
According to local media reports, 749 people died in 2017 alone in Lithuania, and now the figures rise at a great level due to the impact of the global pandemic of Covid-19.
As more individuals travel to wealthier west European countries, mainly the United Kingdom, the country’s population has dropped to its lowest level in decades. Lithuania had a population of 3.67 million in 1989, the year it gained independence from the Soviet Union; it today has a population of 2.9 million. The population is expected to drop to 2.5 million by 2060.
In 2018, the population growth annual rate is -.48 percent, which is a little improvement from 2017, when the World Factbook reported a growth rate of -1.07 percent.
6. Micronesia
Current Population: | 117,282 |
Estimated Population By UN (July 2022): | 117,489 |
Total Suicide Rate: | 28.3 per 100k people |
In recent decades, the Micronesian islands have seen an unusually high rate of youth suicide. Suicide rates in Micronesia exceed reported rates from any other area within Asia and the Pacific Islands among the age group at highest risk-young men between the ages of 15 and 24.
5. Kiribati
Current Population: | 123,005 |
Estimated Population By UN (July 2022): | 123,419 |
Total Suicide Rate: | 28.3 per 100k people |
Kiribati has a poor life expectancy rate of only 63 years for women and 57 years for males, with many health issues caused by semi-raw seafood eating, bacterial contamination of food, and inadequate storage. Only ten years ago, a hospital could treat up to 7% of the population for food poisoning each year.
4. South Korea
Current Population: | 51,324,379 |
Estimated Population By UN (July 2022): | 51,329,899 |
Total Suicide Rate: | 28.6 per 100k people |
The highest population in South Korea is expected to reach 51.35 million by 2024. Population growth in South Korea decreased markedly from 0.1% to 0.09% from 2019 to 2020. It has a 0.92 fertility rate, which means that women have fewer than one child on average. South Korea was reported as the fourth-highest suicidal nation in the world, according to WHO.
South Korean women are hesitant to have children due to expensive schooling and housing expenditures, as well as the difficulties of returning to work after giving birth.
The extraordinarily low fertility rate in South Korea will result in a rapidly aging population. By 2065, over half of South Koreans will have reached the age of 65. South Korea’s workforce, economy, and military capabilities would be jeopardized by such a senior population.
This small East Asian state registered 26.9 suicides for both gender and 100,000 residents in 2016. The risk of suicide was higher in men, and most likely, they were supposed to have these thoughts due to financial crises, stressful environments or other personal reasons.
3. Eswatini
Current Population: | 1,182,471 |
Estimated Population By UN (July 2022): | 1,184,817 |
Total Suicide Rate: | 29.4 per 100k people |
Eswatini suffers a number of obstacles, including the world’s lowest life expectancy, which stifles its development. Having abundant natural resources such as quarried stone, modest diamond and gold mines, and coal, as well as a high literacy rate compared to other African countries, Eswatini’s people live in poverty. Eswatini also has the world’s highest HIV/AIDS prevalence estimates (26%) among adults. Excessive hunting, livestock grazing, soil deterioration, and a lack of drinkable water are other issues. In the face of these challenges, the country is currently increasing at a rate of 1.5 percent per year.
2. Guyana
Current Population: | 793,355 |
Estimated Population By UN (July 2022): | 794,045 |
Total Suicide Rate: | 40.3 per 100k people |
Guyana has seen fairly unstable growth and decline since the 1990s and is now growing very slowly, which lasts some time. That’s why it ranked second as the most suicidal country in the world in accordance to the WHO report. In 2016, the rate of suicide in this nation was 29.2 per 100,000 people. The Government has established a National Action Plan for Mental Health 2015-2020 and a National Suicide Prevention Plan to prevent these conditions.
Over the last fifty years, Guyana has undergone a lot of ups and downs, and it is currently expanding extremely slowly, which will continue for a long time.
1. Lesotho
Current Population: | 2,172,525 |
Estimated Population By UN (July 2022): | 2,175,699 |
Total Suicide Rate: | (72.4 per 100k people) |
Lesotho has an 8.3 percent newborn mortality rate and an extremely high HIV/AIDS rate. The HIV prevalence rate in the country is over 24%, making it one of the highest in the world. In metropolitan areas, about half of women under 40 carry HIV, and the country’s life expectancy is only 42 years. Lesotho has no health pro measures according to the World Health Organisation the last report.
So these are the top ten most suicidal countries in the world! You have to look below if you want to look at the Country Ranking of all the countries along with their total suicide rate in 2022.
Country | Total Suicide Rate | Male Rate | Female Rate | 2022 Population |
---|---|---|---|---|
Lesotho | 72.4 | 116 | 30.1 | 21,75,699 |
Guyana | 40.3 | 63 | 17.4 | 7,94,045 |
Eswatini | 29.4 | 55.1 | 4.7 | 11,84,817 |
South Korea | 28.6 | 40.2 | 16.9 | 5,13,29,899 |
Kiribati | 28.3 | 48.6 | 8.7 | 1,23,419 |
Micronesia | 28.2 | 43.2 | 12.7 | 1,17,489 |
Lithuania | 26.1 | 45.4 | 9.6 | 26,61,708 |
Suriname | 25.4 | 38.8 | 11.8 | 5,96,831 |
Russia | 25.1 | 43.6 | 9.1 | 14,58,05,947 |
South Africa | 23.5 | 37.6 | 9.8 | 6,07,56,135 |
Ukraine | 21.6 | 39.2 | 6.5 | 4,31,92,122 |
Uruguay | 21.2 | 34.5 | 8.9 | 34,96,016 |
Belarus | 21.2 | 36.7 | 7.7 | 94,32,800 |
Montenegro | 21 | 31.7 | 10.4 | 6,27,950 |
Latvia | 20.1 | 35.5 | 7 | 18,48,837 |
Slovenia | 19.8 | 31.4 | 8.3 | 20,78,034 |
Belgium | 18.3 | 24.9 | 11.8 | 1,16,68,278 |
Vanuatu | 18 | 28.1 | 7.6 | 3,21,832 |
Mongolia | 17.9 | 30.7 | 5.4 | 33,78,078 |
Kazakhstan | 17.6 | 29 | 6.8 | 1,92,05,043 |
Hungary | 16.6 | 25.9 | 8.3 | 96,06,259 |
Croatia | 16.4 | 25.3 | 8.1 | 40,59,286 |
Botswana | 16.1 | 26.3 | 6.4 | 24,41,162 |
United States | 16.1 | 25 | 7.5 | 33,48,05,269 |
Finland | 15.3 | 23.2 | 7.6 | 55,54,960 |
Japan | 15.3 | 21.8 | 9.2 | 12,55,84,838 |
Estonia | 14.9 | 24.3 | 6.5 | 13,21,910 |
Solomon Islands | 14.7 | 27 | 1.9 | 7,21,159 |
Moldova | 14.7 | 26.1 | 4.1 | 40,13,171 |
Sweden | 14.7 | 19.9 | 9.5 | 1,02,18,971 |
Austria | 14.6 | 22.8 | 6.7 | 90,66,710 |
Switzerland | 14.5 | 20.2 | 9 | 87,73,637 |
Cuba | 14.5 | 23 | 6 | 1,13,05,652 |
Zimbabwe | 14.1 | 20 | 8.8 | 1,53,31,428 |
Sri Lanka | 14 | 22.3 | 6.2 | 2,15,75,842 |
France | 13.8 | 20.4 | 7.6 | 6,55,84,518 |
Mozambique | 13.6 | 22 | 5.7 | 3,30,89,461 |
India | 12.7 | 14.1 | 11.1 | ########### |
Samoa | 12.6 | 18 | 6.7 | 2,02,239 |
Australia | 12.5 | 18.6 | 6.4 | 2,60,68,792 |
Central African Republic | 12.3 | 19.6 | 5.2 | 50,16,678 |
Germany | 12.3 | 18.6 | 6.2 | 8,38,83,596 |
Slovakia | 12.1 | 21.2 | 3.4 | 54,60,193 |
Iceland | 11.9 | 19.8 | 3.9 | 3,45,393 |
Norway | 11.8 | 15.8 | 7.7 | 55,11,370 |
Netherlands | 11.8 | 15.5 | 8.3 | 1,72,11,447 |
Canada | 11.8 | 17.6 | 6.1 | 3,83,88,419 |
Portugal | 11.5 | 17.9 | 5.7 | 1,01,40,570 |
Serbia | 11.4 | 16.6 | 6.3 | 86,53,016 |
Luxembourg | 11.3 | 15.3 | 7.1 | 6,42,371 |
Poland | 11.3 | 20.1 | 3.1 | 3,77,39,785 |
Singapore | 11.2 | 15 | 7.1 | 59,43,546 |
New Zealand | 11 | 16.5 | 5.8 | 48,98,203 |
Bosnia And Herzegovina | 10.9 | 17.6 | 4.5 | 32,49,317 |
Eritrea | 10.9 | 16.6 | 5.2 | 36,62,244 |
Denmark | 10.7 | 14.9 | 6.5 | 58,34,950 |
Namibia | 9.7 | 16.7 | 3.2 | 26,33,874 |
Bulgaria | 9.7 | 15.3 | 4.4 | 68,44,597 |
Romania | 9.7 | 16.5 | 3.3 | 1,90,31,335 |
Djibouti | 9.6 | 12.6 | 6.4 | 10,16,097 |
Ireland | 9.6 | 15.4 | 3.9 | 50,20,199 |
Haiti | 9.6 | 11.8 | 7.6 | 1,16,80,283 |
Mauritius | 9.5 | 16.3 | 2.8 | 12,74,727 |
North Macedonia | 9.4 | 13.9 | 4.8 | 20,81,304 |
North Korea | 9.4 | 11.2 | 7.6 | 2,59,90,679 |
Georgia | 9.2 | 16 | 3 | 39,68,738 |
Fiji | 9 | 12.2 | 5.7 | 9,09,466 |
Chile | 9 | 14.9 | 3.2 | 1,92,50,195 |
Cameroon | 9 | 13.6 | 4.4 | 2,79,11,548 |
Nepal | 9 | 16.4 | 2.7 | 3,02,25,582 |
Countries with the Lowest Rates of Suicide
Interestingly, suicide rates are relatively low in many of the world’s most troublesome countries. Suicides per 100,000 people are 4.1 in Afghanistan, 3.6 in Iraq, and 2.0 in Syria. It’s unclear whether the suicide statistics for these countries include suicides performed as a result of mental health issues or terminal illnesses which are the most common reasons for suicide in the world or suicides committed as a result of ongoing hostilities in these nations.
The following countries have the lowest suicide rates in the world:
- Antigua and Barbuda (0.4)
- Barbados (0.6)
- Grenada (0.7)
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (1.0)
- Sao Tome and Principe (1.5)
- Jordan (1.6)
- Syria (2.0)
- Venezuela (2.1)
- Honduras (2.1)
- Philippines (2.2)
Conclusion:
Interestingly, in many of the most suicidal countries, there are relatively very high suicide rates. But it does not appear that these countries’ suicide rates reflect or include suicides in unresolved wars in those countries, there are also many other reasons besides these suicidal thoughts in the people, whether it is because mental health stressing or due to financial crises.
Belgium, which ranks eleventh in the world with 18.3 suicides per 100,000 people, is the only Western European country with a particularly high suicide rate. However, Belgium has some of the world’s most liberal rules on physician-assisted suicide, often known as euthanasia, which is likely to play an influence in its figures.