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5. Suicide mortality in 1921 to 2010

The population statistics contain information on suicides concerning even earlier years than many other causes of death: the times series starts here as early as 1921. Men's suicide mortality has always been much higher than women's. There is much variation in male suicide mortality, but among women it has remained more or less unchanged, except for the doubling of women's suicide mortality in the 1950s.

Figure 12. Suicide mortality in 1921 to 2010 per 100,000 persons of the mean population

Suicide mortality has been seen to decline during socially difficult times, during the reference period in the war time and at the time of the recession in the 1990s. In turn, suicide mortality grew during the economic boom in the 1980s, as did accident mortality discussed above. In Finland suicide mortality has been almost double that of the EU average in recent years.

In 2010, 954 persons committed suicide. Three out of four of them, or 718 were men. The number of suicides has last been lower than this in the 1960s. The figure was at its highest in 1990, when there were a total of 1,520 suicides in Finland.

Source: Causes of death, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Marja-Liisa Helminen (09) 1734 3273, Helena Korpi (09) 1734 3605, Irmeli Penttilä (09) 1734 3253, kuolemansyyt@stat.fi

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma

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Updated 16.12.2011