Dhe suicide numbers in Germany have apparently increased again for the first time in a long time. In 2022, 10,119 people took their own lives nationwide, as the National Suicide Prevention Program and the German Academy for Suicide Prevention announced on Wednesday in Kassel. This represents an increase of 9.8 percent or 904 cases. The number is above 10,000 for the first time in eight years; In addition, the percentage increase within one year is the strongest since 1980. The evaluation refers to the cause of death statistics from the Federal Statistical Office.
The experts spoke of a worrying development. “Significantly more people still die from suicide in Germany than from traffic accidents, murder and manslaughter, illegal drugs and AIDS combined,” said the communications officer for the National Suicide Prevention Program (NaSPro), Hannah Müller-Pein.
Increasingly a phenomenon of older age
Well over 100,000 people attempted suicide in 2022, it said. More than 600,000 people have lost a loved one to suicide. Men make up 74 percent of those who die by suicide. The highest suicide rates were recorded in Saxony (17.2) and Saxony-Anhalt (16.3); The rate rose most sharply in Brandenburg and Hamburg (by 2.4 each). The rate has only fallen in Thuringia (by minus 2.5) and in Saarland (by -0.9); The suicide rate is lowest in Bremen and North Rhine-Westphalia (9.0 each).
A drastic increase in “corona suicides” among people under 30 could not be derived from the available data. Overall, suicide is increasingly a phenomenon of older people: the average age of someone who died by suicide was 60.7 years in 2022. This means an increase of exactly one year of life compared to the previous year; in 2000 the average age was 53.9 years. Overall, according to information, 73.4 percent of suicides occur in the age group over 50.
Assisted suicides are not shown separately in the statistics. According to the information, it is unclear whether the increase in suicides by medication in 2021 and 2022 compared to 2020 by 427 cases (42 percent) is related to the debates about assisted suicide. The academy’s managing director, Georg Fiedler, called for a register and a timely publication of deaths with “the cause of death being assisted suicide”.
The development requires extensive financial support for preventive offers, warned NaSPro head Reinhard Lindner. According to Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), the Federal Ministry of Health is currently working on a national suicide prevention strategy. In July, the Bundestag called on the federal government by a large majority in a motion for a resolution to submit a draft law and a strategy for suicide prevention to the Bundestag by June 30, 2024.
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