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- Research has found that, with an estimated 87.5 suicides per 100 000 deaths, Lesotho has the highest suicide rate in the world.
- In Africa and South Asia, a 'low share' of deaths were registered as suicides, meaning the published data could be lower than actual cases.
- South African men are 4.1 times more likely to die by suicide than women.
New research by Our World in Data has found that southern Africa has some of the highest suicide rates in the world.
The data is from 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic shut the world down. In the top 10 of the world's highest suicide rates per 100 000 people, Lesotho recorded 87.5 deaths, Eswatini comes in third with 40.5 and Zimbabwe is seventh with 23.6, followed closely by South Africa with 23.5. Mozambique is ninth with 23.2 deaths and the Central African Republic rounds off the top 10 with 23 deaths.
With 458 deaths per 100 000, Nigeria has the highest number of suicide deaths by use of firearms in Africa, followed by South Africa with 397 deaths, the Democratic Republic of the Congo with 395, Ethiopia with 340 and Tanzania with 203.
Our World in Data said the major contributing factors for suicide included "differences in underlying mental health and treatment, personal and financial stress, restrictions on the means of suicide, [as well as] recognition and awareness of suicide".
The findings were based on death certificate data from 2019 which were "classified under death codes for 'intentional self-harm' in the International Classification of Diseases", the report said.
The researchers, however, said in Africa and South Asia, a "low share" of deaths were registered as suicides, which means the published data could be lower than actual cases.
READ | Suicide claims decline, but more people losing income due to mental health disorders - Liberty
According to the report, men in both low and high-income countries are, on average, two times more likely to die by suicide than women.
"More than twice as many males die from suicide as females (12.6 per 100 000 males compared with 5.4 per 100 000 females).
The report read:
In Africa, Ghanaian men were found to be 10.5 times more likely to die by suicide than women, followed by Namibia, where men were 7.6 times more likely to die by suicide than women.
South African men were found to be 4.1 times likely to die by suicide than women, while in Mozambique they were 5.1 times more likely to do so than women.
Zimbabwean men were 2.8 times more likely to commit suicide than women, while those in Botswana were 2.8 more likely and Lesotho men were twice more likely to die from suicide than women.
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The News24 Africa Desk is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation. The stories produced through the Africa Desk and the opinions and statements that may be contained herein do not reflect those of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
