Suicide across the globe

The image above, developed by the World Health Organization (2019), highlights suicide rates across the world. Along the bottom of the image, we can see the suicide rate per 100,000 population colour-coded. Darker areas reflect greater rates of suicide deaths. From an inspection of the map, we can see quite clearly that suicide rates differ depending on the country. In some countries, such as India, Japan, Russia, and parts of Africa, we can see that the suicide rate is close to 72 deaths per 100,000 population. This means that for every 100,000 people live births in a certain country, approximately 72 will die by suicide. In Saudi Arabia, Brazil and the UK, we can see that the suicide rate is slightly lower. Lowest of all include countries such as Algeria, Indonesia and Peru. 

For some countries, data are not available, and these are shown in grey. There are a few important caveats to the data presented here. For example, in certain countries, the data are more reliable than in others. However, in general, what is quite clear here is that suicide rates differ across the world. We need to think about why suicide rates differ across the world. Part of this might be related to reporting issues. However, it may also be related to differences in social factors, cultural factors, religion, and stigma.

As a broad overview, the latest data (WHO, 2019) indicates that Asian, Eastern European countries, the USA and South Africa have the highest rates of suicide. Central and South American, Eastern Mediterranean and African countries have the lowest rates. Canada, Australia and Central Europe are somewhere between these rates.   

Trends in suicide prevalence vary over time, in part due to improved record keeping, decriminalisation of suicide and improvement in suicide prevention strategies. For example, the suicide rate in India was approximately 16.5 per 100,000 in 2016, however this reduced to 12.9 in 2019. Part of this reduction may be due to Indias introduction of the Mental Healthcare Act in 2017.

##Activity##

Spend some time doing some light web research exploring the variations in reported rates of suicide. Use the [WHO map](https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/mental-health/suicide-rates) as a possible starting point.