Suicides Have Halved in Ukraine since 2005

Annual suicides have almost halved in Ukraine over the past 15 years. Their number was 10,622 in 2005 versus 6,103 in 2020. In other words, previously 29 suicides on average were committed daily, while now the count stands at 16.7.

The mortality rate from suicide has been trending down since the mid-2000s. There were several minor spikes, but suicides have been steadily decreasing since 2013. Over the past three years, their number has been hovering at a little more than six thousand. The pandemic did not influence it.

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Number of suicides in Ukraine

Year	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Number of suicides	10,622	10,013	10,037	9,458	9,717	9,091	8,973	9,060	9,367	7,970	7,575	6,898	6,488	6,279	6,190	6,103	2,988

Suicides are committed mostly by men. Women traditionally account for less than one-quarter of suicides.

Since 2005, a total of 130,000 people have died from “deliberate self-harm”. Of these people, 110,000 were men—more than the population of Berdiansk or Nikopol—and 24,000 women, which corresponds to the population of Kaniv.

There is a stereotype that people are more often murdered than they take their own lives, but it is completely different in reality. To compare, 42,500 murders were committed over the same period—three times less than suicides.

2,988 suicides were recorded over the first six months of 2021.