Suicide is a global public health issue that affects people of all ages, genders, and cultural backgrounds. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that each year, suicide claims the lives of over 800,000 people worldwide. While suicide rates vary greatly from country to country, there are some nations that have a higher incidence of suicide compared to others.
Top 10 countries by suicide rate 2023:
In 2023, the ten countries with the highest suicide rates (number of suicides per 100k) were;
- Lesotho (72.4)
- Guyana (40.3)
- Eswatini (29.4),
- South Korea (28.6)
- Kiribati (28.3)
- Federated States of Micronesia (28.2)
- Lithuania (26.1)
- Suriname (25.4)
- Russia (25.1)
- South Africa (23.5)
Lesotho, a landlocked country in southern Africa, has the highest suicide rate in the world, with 72.4 suicides per 100k population. The country faces a number of challenges, including poverty, unemployment, and political instability, which may contribute to the high suicide rate.
Guyana, a South American country, has a suicide rate of 40.3 per 100k, making it the second highest in the world. The country is grappling with issues such as drug abuse, high levels of poverty, and a shortage of mental health services, which may contribute to the high suicide rate.
Eswatini, a landlocked country in southern Africa, has a suicide rate of 29.4 per 100k, making it the third highest in the world. The country faces challenges such as poverty, high levels of HIV/AIDS, and limited access to mental health services, which may contribute to the high suicide rate.
In Asia, South Korea has a suicide rate of 28.6 per 100k, making it one of the countries with the highest suicide rates in the world. The country is facing challenges such as economic uncertainty, a highly competitive job market, and high levels of stress, which may contribute to the high suicide rate.
Belgium, a western European country, has a suicide rate of 18.3 per 100k, making it the eleventh highest in the world. Belgium has some of the world’s most liberal laws on doctor-assisted suicide, also known as euthanasia, which is likely to be a factor in its statistics.
The high suicide rates in these countries highlight the need for greater awareness and efforts to prevent suicide. Governments and healthcare organizations need to invest in mental health services, suicide prevention programs, and support for those at risk to help reduce the incidence of suicide.
List of 10 Countries With The Highest Suicide Rates 2022:
Nobody besides themselves would know what goes on in their minds a few minutes before taking their own life, by their own hands. It has been said throughout time and religious scriptures that a person’s soul would never be at rest if they die before it was their time, worse off if they have killed themselves or have been murdered. Some countries have such highest suicide rates that the whole country is haunted by the dead.
Basically to say, anything of an un-natural death would leave an angry soul wondering around for decades, if not centuries according to some stories in Folklore that even reported certain incidences of people who are dubbed as the ‘un-dead’ that come to haunt the living due to the unhappiness of their short lived lives.
While folklore and Ghosts may remain a phantom of mystery and everlasting stories to be told throughout time from generation to generation. Suicide is a reality. Many people ranging from the smallest to the oldest of people for many reasons unknown or known, have done it.
Here is a list of 10 countries with the highest suicide rates of 2021, which includes male, female, suicide of mysterious reasons and suicide for reasons that can be reckoned with.
10. Kazakhstan
A country that’s somewhat ‘ghostly’ to the world as it isn’t actually a name that would instantly pop when in thought of Countries in general, however suicide in Kazakhstan is one of the biggest newsflash unfortunate events that occur. Kazakhstan holds tenth position among the countries with the highest suicide rates in the world. 86 Teenagers have committed suicide over a period of 5 months in Kazakhstan and all children here were minors under the age of 18 years old and we would think, what stresses would somebody that isn’t even of a legal age have to have gone to the extent of suicide?
Well most of these cases could be traced back to common issues such as failure in examinations and not being strong enough to face the embarrassment of the people. Failure in general however, isn’t the end of the world, somebody would only fail if they stop trying. Other related incidences that lead to suicide would include: feeling of extreme loneliness, Conflict at schools that may have created hostility in a child or family conflicts.
9. Nepal
According to reports from Nepali Police, there has been a staggering amount in the number of people committing suicide in Nepal after a horrendous earthquakes that took place at which had an influential impact that caused around 965 people to take their lives by their own hands, instead of being killed by one of the strongest forces of nature.
These earthquakes have taken place in April 2015 which may also explain that if people took their lives this year, it would simply be to reasons of missing or not being able to deal in the loss of their loved ones during those tragic incidences etc. Turning it into on of those countries with the highest suicide rates.
This obviously ought to have stricken the fear of god in them and there isn’t a human being on earth that would not fear a ground shaking event that may cause a house to fall on top of them and all that they love, crushing down everything else they’ve spent their entire lives building or having in their possession.
Police data of Nepal also reported that more than 4000 people commit suicide each year and majority fall under the categories of Natural disaster related fears or grievances while the rest may fall under reasons of poverty as well. Natural disasters cannot be controlled by humans however humans do have the power to control their own actions against their lives.
8. Tanzania
There’s a devil that resides in Tanzania and nope were not talking about the world known ‘Tanzanian Devil’. The ‘Devil’ in this case would be the increase in suicide rates that keep fluctuating as the years pass. Most of these fluctuations are caused by increments instead of seeing a decrease.
The suicide rates in Tanzania is enough to Alarm the concern of psychiatrists, physiologists and other professionals who are ‘Mind’ experts and arouses the anticipation and contemplation of the reason behind the rate of suicide and its increase as far as where Tanzanian locals are concerned.
Within a period of 5 years, Tanzania has the highest suicide rates and has seen the deaths of 3420 incidences of suicide consisting of majority in men and women and minority occupied in the numbers of minors below the age of 18 years old.
Some notable reasons behind these suicides traces back to young girls and social problems they face on a daily basis of course inflicting stress of levels that they cannot take anymore and due to incurable diseases that one would choose not to live with such as HIV/AIDS etc.
7. Mozambique
A country with an Ak-47 on its flag, waves a striking statement of it being a war zone and where every man must be a solider to be uncivilized in a civilization of people. Seeing this would come across to the world as a symbol of not having any hope. Ruthlessness, aggression, defense and civil war is the name of the game as far as some parts of Mozambique is concerned.
With Mozambique also being one of the poorest and under-developed in Africa which means that they are bound to encounter a series of issues and life lowering things that contribute to their eventual resorting of suicide. The country has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Example, not everybody would have proper sanitation in the rural areas and would have to walk miles and miles to get to a river where they can contract Malaria and other water infected diseases.
Rape is also a crime that occurs in Mozambique and although less frequent as other countries, it does happen, which would be traumatic to the victim that will commit suicide out of that life destroying incident. Mozambique has been rendered as the “Number 1 suicide Nation in Africa’. Due to being poverty stricken and prone to all kinds of incurable and chronic diseases, suicide In Mozambique isn’t an uncommon thing that could happen.
6. Suriname
A country with staunch beliefs and Indian family traditions is so powerful and painful at the same time that due to how strict some of it is, it can drive a person to take their lives making Suriname one of those countries with the highest suicide rates.
Indian females especially have the hardest time since arranged marriages that turn out unlucky, or the worst situation where they aren’t married at all brings a shame to the family background and they are usually burnt alive, dismembered, raped, murdered or disfigured with acid thrown on their skin etc. as well as other torturous and heinous things done to them.
Women as beautiful as they may be are more prone to take their own lives at an instance without second thought, rather than to die in a despicable inhumane manner by cruel men or because they couldn’t comply to traditions of society in Suriname. Apart from this, Suriname is also a poor country and locals have a hard time making a living as well with contributing factors of sexual exploitation, health, child labor and lack of education as well.
5. Lithuania
Lithuania once had the highest official rate of suicides in the world that seemed to have topped Spain and the United States of America put together at shocking numbers. It has also been noted that the rate of suicide in Lithuania is twice as high in rural areas.
The common reason for most suicides is due to peoples circumstances example: alcoholism, alcohol abuse, drug consumption of dosages that the body is unable to handle, therefore affecting their overall mindset and with an overload of their situations and circumstances that somebody would think off at any particular moment, may be enough to drive somebody to an early death.
Poverty in Lithuania is so severe that the people who you would find walking the streets, digging in rubbish bins, sleeping on sidewalks or lying under cardboards in rags and torn clothes have spoken out that they once had lives and jobs, were well nourished etc. however the ‘communist past’ has a lot to do with how and why they are this way now.
Hope in this Country is far from majority of the suffering persons mind and seems to be an extreme contributing factor that motivates them to take the final step of pulling the cord on their lives.
4. Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka experiences one of the highest suicide rates in the world and not for the cliché reasons as mentioned above. 4000 people a year and at a rate of 11 people erasing their lives from this world per day. If this continues, its enough to wipe an entire community out within a month or two.
Many people around the world have gone through the stressful obligation of paying bills or debts some time in their life and so financial issues can really strain a person to a painful extent, that can get them so deep in thought, that their depression levels would reach maximum heights.
Sadly many people would feel that if banks cannot help them to get out of their fix and if they job cannot pay for it, or friends or family won’t help, then the only escape route would be to take their lives. Besides financial issues, there are also several factors that can contribute to one’s death or suicide in Sri Lanka and that once again brings us back to the Indian traditions, gang pressure, not being educated enough to get a skilled job which again cycles back to financial issues and problems being one of the prominent and most common reasons for why Sri Lankans would take their lives.
3. South Korea
Asian Countries in general are rather strong willed, highly populated and modernized in most cases. China having the world’s highest population would validate that there is too many people in Asian countries to be worried about the few that commit suicide isn’t so? Well it’s not quite the case here. The amount of population a country has doesn’t mean that if a few die, then it wouldn’t be a great loss to the country.
South Korea on the other hand is a small country which has a considerable amount in its population which is why it’s a bigger worry when Majority of that small country population decides to take their lives. It is almost like on the brink of being extinct, hypothetically speaking and that’s the type of concern it brings about.
South Koreans seem to be more of the intelligent, high profiled, educated and successful people as a difference who are prone to killing themselves or simply retreating to other parts from their home town, thinking they would be escaping their troubles without realizing their problems are to haunt them where ever they are in the world. This can be considered as the ‘not-so intelligent’ part of South Koreans.
Death and suicide is a very serious thing and shouldn’t be taken lightly, nor is it something that you can laugh about, however comically the people of South Korea who end up taking their lives are businessmen who are unhappy about their businesses and how it is doing which is a very silly reason for somebody to end life for, forgetting what it took to reach that point of success in the first place. It makes one question, why start and get so far only to give up now?
2. Japan
Japan with a population of 126 , 387, 171 is among the countries with the highest suicide rates. At which last year alone, 25 000 people have committed suicide which is three times the suicide rate of the United Kingdom. Not to be insensitive, however one Japanese man, 71 year old man has had a rather unique way of ending his life, literally ending it off with a ‘fiery’ escape as he set himself alight in Japan’s bullet train.
Japan is a large place and too many people and where there is more people, means more problems. The problems that Japanese would face are somewhat soft issues as compared to what the rest of Suicide crusaders of the world have had to face before bringing their death as near as they wanted it to be.
Depression and economic crisis is generally more than enough for the average Japanese man or women to take their lives. These however are just temporary setbacks and ill-feelings that will fade away with time and things that can easily be overcome, however due to the humungous Japanese population size, if most of the Japanese people would have and adapt the very same mindset, this would increase the rate by wildfire in the years to come.
An economic crisis situation would be the worst thing a Japanese businessmen could suffer as most of the world relies on Asian manufactured products and their production etc., it is almost as though Japan is highly reliant on the business of other countries in order for them to run sustainably.
1. Guyana
Guyana is number one on the list of countries with the highest suicide rates simply because it’s become world knowledge that the people of this Country die like flies. As insensitive as that sounded, it is the exact reality. Guyana holds the highest suicide rates in the world for many of the common reasons mentioned and more especially for some bizarre reasons as well.
Apart from Guyana people being faced with depression, rape, poverty, chronic or incurable diseases or illnesses, lack of skilled education, unemployment, civil war every now and then, family and social related issues, unhappiness with one self and more especially mental illnesses being a common thing amongst locals , the most shocking reason which tops everything discussed thus far at why the rate of suicide is so high in above countries is that the suicide rate of Guyana has sky rocketed due to acts of witchcraft.
A major contributing factor to mental illnesses as people use spiritual ‘powers’ via their connection to ancestors to manipulate and control the minds of people whom they are after which is powerful enough to make them do things that they don’t usually do or say. Folklore and witchcraft has become a controversial phenomenon that spans on a global scale or in most of the African continents.
Over the years, scientists, psychologists and other professionals have tried to crackdown the bizarre-ness and power of Folklore and witchcraft and have analyzed the effectiveness of it on the average humans mind and body and the results are somewhat disturbing to the faint hearted. Nevertheless though, witchcraft seems to be the dominating contributing factor in Guyana which ultimately makes it the Number one country with the highest rates of Suicides that tops every other country since when one’s mind is controlled by a paranormal being or spiritual power, it can be considered as destructive humans that eventually self-destruct so that they don’t end up hurting everybody else.