Suicide

Suicide is when someone intentionally ends their own life. Worldwide, it accounts for roughly 1.1% of all deaths—about 727,000 in 2021, or 8.9 per 100,000 people each year. It is the third most common cause of death for people aged 15 to 29. Around 73% of suicides happen in low- and middle-income countries. Men die by suicide more often than women, with rates 1.5 times higher in developing regions and up to 3.5 times higher in developed ones. In Western countries, non-fatal attempts are more frequent among young people and women. While suicide is most common in people over 70, some countries see the highest risk among those aged 15 to 30. Europe had the highest regional suicide rate in 2015.

Between 10 and 20 million non-fatal suicide attempts occur each year, sometimes leading to injury or long-term disability. The method people use varies by country and often depends on what is readily available. Assisted suicide—where someone helps another end their life, often due to severe pain or imminent death—is legal in many places and becoming more common.

Risk factors include mental disorders, neurodevelopmental conditions, physical illnesses, and substance abuse. Some suicides happen on impulse, triggered by stress from money or school problems, relationship issues like breakups or divorce, or harassment and bullying. People who have tried before are more likely to try again. Prevention efforts that work include restricting access to common means such as firearms, drugs, and poisons; treating mental health issues and addiction; careful media reporting; improving economic conditions; and therapies like dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Crisis hotlines—for example, 988 in North America and 13 11 14 in Australia—are widely used, though their effectiveness hasn't been thoroughly studied. Suicidology is the field that scientifically examines suicide and self-destructive behavior.

Views on suicide have long been shaped by ideas about religion, honor, and life's meaning. Most religions condemn it. In samurai-era Japan, seppuku (or harakiri) was seen as an honorable way to atone for failure or to protest. Suicide and attempted suicide were once illegal in most Western countries but are no longer, though they remain crimes in some places. In the 20th and 21st centuries, suicide has occasionally been used as a form of protest or combined with murder, both in military contexts and by terrorists. It is widely regarded as a tragedy, causing deep grief for family, friends, and communities.

The word "suicide" comes from Latin *suicidium*, meaning "the act of taking one's own life." An attempted suicide is self-injury with at least some intention to die that does not result in death. Assisted suicide involves one person giving another advice or the means to die. Euthanasia—specifically voluntary euthanasia—means someone else takes a more active role in ending a person's life. Suicidal ideation refers to thoughts of ending one's life without acting on them, which may or may not include a plan. Suicidality describes the risk of suicide, often indicated by such thoughts or a clear plan. A murder-suicide (or homicide-suicide) involves killing others at the same time; extended suicide is a subtype where the killer sees the victims as part of themselves. Egoistic suicide happens when someone feels disconnected from society.

Language around suicide has shifted. The Centre for Suicide Prevention in Canada noted that "commit" was once standard in research and journalism but argued for less stigmatizing terms. The American Psychological Association advises against "committed suicide" because it frames suicide as a crime. Some advocacy groups prefer "died by suicide," "took his/her own life," or "killed him/herself." The Associated Press, *The Guardian*, *The Observer*, and CNN all discourage using "committed" except in direct quotes. Critics say "committed" implies suicide is criminal, sinful, or morally wrong.

Suicide can involve more than one method or cause unintended secondary trauma. Complex suicides use multiple methods at once or in sequence—either secondary (a backup method after the first seems to fail to prevent suffering) or primary (a backup method after the first seems to fail entirely). Complicated suicide describes a poorly understood situation where a single method leads to unexpected additional injury.

There is no known single underlying physical cause for suicide.