Spain continues with rising suicide figures

Eleven people died by suicide per day in Spain in 2021, which represents a suicide mortality rate of 8.45 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. The report “Evolution of suicide in Spain in this millennium (2000-2021)” warns about this growing trend in mortality.

CIBERSAM researchers Alejandro De la Torre, Víctor Pérez and José Luis Ayuso. Image courtesy of the Complutense University of Madrid

The suicide rate in Spain continues to rise. Specifically, 4.003 people have died by suicide during the year 2021according to the data provided by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

For its part, the pandemic has only aggravated the situation and increased the numbers, especially in certain social groups.

researchers of the Complutense University of Madridof Center for Biomedical Research in the Mental Health Network (CIBERSAM) and of the Barcelona Sea Hospital have presented the report “Evolution of suicide in Spain in this millennium (2000-2021)”.

The study has been carried out by CIBERSAM researchers Alexander of the Towerprincipal investigator of the Research Group in Psychiatric Epidemiology and Mental Health at the Complutense University of Madrid; Victor Perez, director of the Institute of Neuropsychiatry and Addictions of the Hospital del Mar (INAD) and professor of Psychiatry at the Autonomous University of Barcelona; Y Jose Luis AyusoProfessor of Psychiatry and Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Research and Training in Mental Health Services at the Autonomous University of Madrid.

Study Results

The results of the analysis reflect a growing trend suicide mortality in Spain since 2018.

Furthermore, it has been especially marked during 2021, where an annual growth of 6 % compared to 2018, the year in which cases began to increase.

The figures show the strong impact of the pandemic in the increase in mortality from suicide in Spain.

Report graph: Evolution of suicide in Spain in this millennium (2000-2021)

What are the population trends?

Sex and age

Eleven people died by suicide per day in Spain during 2021, which represents a suicide mortality rate of 8.45 deaths for every 100,000 inhabitants.

The figures reveal that 3 out of 4 people who died by suicide that year were mensspecifically, 2982 cases.

Half of the deceased were aged between 40-64 years.

Also, the 31% of those who died were 65 years of age or older, one 13,8% was between 25 and 39 years old and a 5% between 10 and 24 years.

In this way, there were no cases of suicide in children under 10 years of age during 2021.

Country of origin

The 87% of the people who died by suicide (3490 people) were born in Spain, while the 12,7% The rest were born in other countries.

A percentage that has also increased compared to 2020.

Place of residence

Regarding the place of residence of the deceased, it can be deduced that most of them lived in large cities.

And 32% lived in provincial capitals and almost a quarter of the deceased lived in rural areas (municipalities with less than 10,000 inhabitants) or urban municipalities with between 10,000-50,000 inhabitants.

The rest lived in large cities (more than 50,000 inhabitants).

As for the provinces where the highest rates of suicide mortality are observed, the most noteworthy are Jaen, Zamora y Lugo.

And as the report states, a total of 27 of the 50 Spanish provinces plus the two autonomous cities exceed the mean suicide mortality worldwidel, indicated by the World Health Organization (WHO) for 2019.

Image of the Report: Evolution of suicide in Spain in this millennium (2000-2021)

Temporal space

The study also shows that in practically every month (except January and August) there are a greater number of deaths in 2021 than in the years 2019 and 2020.

Regarding the months, an increase in mortality is observed in the summer months, a pattern that has not changed in previous years.

The month where the most people died by suicide in 2021 was juliocon 400 deaths.

Report Findings

The suicide mortality rate in Spain is dangerously close to the world average set by the WHO, with figures that researchers speculate could be the effect of everything that the pandemic has entailed.

However, they point out that the expectations are not at all promising, since the growing trend is expected to continue in 2022 as well.