Suicide Statistics

[Paizen]

5% of people in the world want to kill themselves, which 1 in 20 people.

Yet, less than 0.009% actually commit suicide. The number is closer to 1 in 150,000.

That's too extreme of a number for me to feel like it's rational anymore. I don't really feel like suicide is the answer. Major depression is a serious problem and that statistic is not including things like accidental overdose which is usually people coping with a depressing life. Life is very short anyways so I just try my best to get through the worst parts, especially the "transitional periods," and also trying to change whatever I can for the better. I'm focusing on wellness models like sunlight, nutrition, community, meditation, etc. If there's anything this site has taught me, it's that suicide is messy, risky and maybe even more difficult than just fixing your life. It has a lot to do with the space you're in and people you're around. Parents for example are consistently assholes, and even if nobody cares about me, I have to care about me.

I also realized that suicide is much more common in young people, especially teenagers, which gives meaning to the phrase "it gets better." I agree, it does get better, and then it gets worse, and then it gets better again, etc. Life is a rollercoaster.

 

[penguinl0v3s]

Many people want to escape their problems, but most don't want the baggage of having to question what happens after death, if it will be worse, cope with uncertainty, etc. Wanting to die comes from wanting to escape the pains of fixing your life. Actually dying requires asking philosophical questions, overcoming a survival instinct, losing the good parts, and disappointing the people you're close to. Also the stigma.

I can't say I agree that the act of suicide is more difficult, but the philosophical questions about "what if would be worse after death" do bother me a lot. In life, there is certainty. Death is the antithesis of certainty.

I have also struggled with how many times I get better, then get worse again. I wonder, once my adult life becomes more stable and is just routine and monotonous, will I be able to stop with those transitional periods and have emotional stability? I have yet to find out.

It's nice that you already have ideas on how to change and are trying to commit to living. Community did a lot for me, though it's probably one of the hardest things to obtain. If you don't mind me asking, what exactly started your depression? Maybe you can use that as a starting point to figure out why you haven't wanted to live, and work on that first.

 

[thereisnoneed]

5% of people in the world want to kill themselves, which 1 in 20 people.

Yet, less than 0.009% actually commit suicide. The number is closer to 1 in 150,000.

That's too extreme of a number for me to feel like it's rational anymore. I don't really feel like suicide is the answer. Major depression is a serious problem and that statistic is not including things like accidental overdose which is usually people coping with a depressing life. Life is very short anyways so I just try my best to get through the worst parts, especially the "transitional periods," and also trying to change whatever I can for the better. I'm focusing on wellness models like sunlight, nutrition, community, meditation, etc. If there's anything this site has taught me, it's that suicide is messy, risky and maybe even more difficult than just fixing your life. It has a lot to do with the space you're in and people you're around. Parents for example are consistently assholes, and even if nobody cares about me, I have to care about me.

I also realized that suicide is much more common in young people, especially teenagers, which gives meaning to the phrase "it gets better." I agree, it does get better, and then it gets worse, and then it gets better again, etc. Life is a rollercoaster.

I don't take them seriously, firstly many countries count overdosing on drugs or death from binge drinking alcohol as "suicide" even though the person might not have intended it, secondly places like the Islamic world where suicide is a huge taboo tend to have misleading suicide stats, because mostly they get reported as incidents thanks to shame that it brings to the families in question, they keep it a secret and tell everyone that it was an incident, because they don't want to say that their child/partner/parent/sibling etc commited suicide.

and there are probably other technical issues with suicide stats that i did not mention

 

[wham311]

5% of people in the world want to kill themselves, which 1 in 20 people.

Yet, less than 0.009% actually commit suicide. The number is closer to 1 in 150,000.

That's too extreme of a number for me to feel like it's rational anymore. I don't really feel like suicide is the answer. Major depression is a serious problem and that statistic is not including things like accidental overdose which is usually people coping with a depressing life. Life is very short anyways so I just try my best to get through the worst parts, especially the "transitional periods," and also trying to change whatever I can for the better. I'm focusing on wellness models like sunlight, nutrition, community, meditation, etc. If there's anything this site has taught me, it's that suicide is messy, risky and maybe even more difficult than just fixing your life. It has a lot to do with the space you're in and people you're around. Parents for example are consistently assholes, and even if nobody cares about me, I have to care about me.

I also realized that suicide is much more common in young people, especially teenagers, which gives meaning to the phrase "it gets better." I agree, it does get better, and then it gets worse, and then it gets better again, etc. Life is a rollercoaster.

Number has to be low because 4.7 percent of all Canadian deaths last year were from maid. Add suicide on top of that and people that can't commit on top of that and it's looking like a pretty high number of people don't want to be here.

Suicidality is often a rational decision. Some people's lives will not get better and aren't worth living. Unfortunately it's the ones who are supercharged that get it done, because it requires some mental illness to get past si in my opinion

 

[Paizen]

Many people want to escape their problems, but most don't want the baggage of having to question what happens after death, if it will be worse, cope with uncertainty, etc. Wanting to die comes from wanting to escape the pains of fixing your life. Actually dying requires asking philosophical questions, overcoming a survival instinct, losing the good parts, and disappointing the people you're close to. Also the stigma.

I can't say I agree that the act of suicide is more difficult, but the philosophical questions about "what if would be worse after death" do bother me a lot. In life, there is certainty. Death is the antithesis of certainty.

I have also struggled with how many times I get better, then get worse again. I wonder, once my adult life becomes more stable and is just routine and monotonous, will I be able to stop with those transitional periods and have emotional stability? I have yet to find out.

It's nice that you already have ideas on how to change and are trying to commit to living. Community did a lot for me, though it's probably one of the hardest things to obtain. If you don't mind me asking, what exactly started your depression? Maybe you can use that as a starting point to figure out why you haven't wanted to live, and work on that first.

That's true about whether suicide is actually harder than living, I wrote that sort of haphazardously. I can't compare the two.

And yes, I am 29 years and dying to also find out if I will ever become a stable adult with a—not monotonous—but at least consistent life. I actually did have a pretty consistent life at one point when I was making around 55-65k as a laundry concierge, but it became too monotonous and I eventually broke down and quit, then almost became homeless, which is sort of where I'm at now.

I like to build communities through spiritual groups. If you are into meditiation and philosophy, it's actually a really easy way to meet people, but I agree; it is one of the the hardest things to obtain.

I don't even know if I have "depression." It's more of a psychotic suicidality that comes on randomly and I'm also highly resourceful and could probably kill myself in seconds with 100% certainty. But if you want to know what started it, it's probably being molested by my neighbor when I was 6, doing copious amounts of hallucinogens in my teen years (probably to cope idk) and then being gay for 2 years, meeting the love of my life, finding out I'm not actually gay, and then the girl slit her wrists the same week my grandpa died and I was evicted in humiliating fashion and also exiled by my family for literally no other reason than calling my mom a bitch (actually, I just said fuck off under my breath, but she's a huge cunt so there's that as well). This all happened last month. I'm fine, probably. As long as I don't get fired within the next two months, and it's going pretty well, but I always say that and I've been through five jobs in the past year so honestly who knows. I'm getting evaluated in a few weeks.

I don't take them seriously, firstly many countries count overdosing on drugs or death from binge drinking alcohol as "suicide" even though the person might not have intended it, secondly places like the Islamic world where suicide is a huge taboo tend to have misleading suicide stats, because mostly they get reported as incidents thanks to shame that it brings to the families in question, they keep it a secret and tell everyone that it was an incident, because they don't want to say that their child/partner/parent/sibling etc commited suicide.

and there are probably other technical issues with suicide stats that i did not mention

But if they count the overdoses as suicide, wouldn't that make the real suicide statistic even lower? I actually think it is a false stastic in that it has to be higher. There's no way only 4 people in Canada commit per year. I imagine it's probably 10x higher than that.

Number has to be low because 4.7 percent of all Canadian deaths last year were from maid. Add suicide on top of that and people that can't commit on top of that and it's looking like a pretty high number of people don't want to be here.

Suicidality is often a rational decision. Some people's lives will not get better and aren't worth living. Unfortunately it's the ones who are supercharged that get it done, because it requires some mental illness to get past si in my opinion

I agree with all of that except at what age do we really know that a person's life will "never get better"? Because it has to be past 40 or at least mid-to-late 30s. If anything go to a church and get shelter if you're going to be homeless before that age and try to make connections there so you can get back on your feet. Anyone can get better possibly.

Idk, from what I've seen, it's the people who just want to do drugs and fuck around that are "unsalvageable" and "never can get better" and they don't even want to commit

 

[hedezev4]

I apologize in advance if I misunderstood you — English is not my first language.
But I'm 99% sure that you're making a serious mistake in your calculations and understanding of the statistics.
You wrote that only 1 in 150,000 people die by suicide, but that's extremely far from the truth.
I'll use statistics from my own country. According to different sources, there are:

1. 11 suicides per 100,000 people per year (official data), and
2. 25 per 100,000 per year (according to the World Health Organization).

If we take the average life expectancy — 72 years — we get:

1) 11 × 72 = 835 suicides per 100,000 over a lifetime
100,000 / 835 = 1 in 120

2) 25 × 72 = 1,807
100,000 / 1,807 = 1 in 55

So over a lifetime, somewhere between 1 in 120 and 1 in 55 people die by suicide.
You could go deeper and adjust for age (since suicide risk varies by age group), but I didn't include that in these calculations.
We can also break it down by gender — in my country, around 80% of suicides are committed by men.

For men:

1. 80% of 835 = 668
   50,000 (half of population) / 668 = 1 in 75
2. 80% of 1,807 = 1,445
   50,000 / 1,445 = 1 in 35

For women:

1. 20% of 835 = 167
   50,000 / 167 = 1 in 299
2. 20% of 1,807 = 362
   50,000 / 362 = 1 in 138

So the lifetime suicide risk for men is roughly 1 in 35 to 1 in 75, and for women it's 1 in 138 to 1 in 299.
These numbers can go even higher if someone has additional risk factors — such as mental illness, substance abuse (including alcohol), unemployment, a previous suicide attempt, social isolation or loneliness, the loss of a relationship, academic failure, or belonging to the LGBTQ+ community.
So in the end, suicide is not as rare as people often think.

I remember looking up these numbers myself some time ago, and at first I also thought that "11–25 per 100,000" meant over a lifetime, not per year. That's a very common misunderstanding.