Suicides in adolescents grew by 32% between 2019 and 2021

Suicide is the leading cause of death in young people and adolescents between 12 and 29 years of age in Spain and its number is increasing. This is clear from the Report on the Evolution of Suicide in Spain in the Child and Adolescent Population (2000-2021) directed by Alejandro de la Torre, principal investigator of the Research Group in Psychiatric Epidemiology and Mental Health of the Complutense University of Madrid and researchers from Cibersam who just saw the light.

According to the study, prepared with data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), between 2019 and 2021 there was an increase of 32.35% in the number of suicides in adolescents (12 to 17 years old), going from 34 to 45 deaths. because of this.

Covid-19, however, is not primarily responsible for this increase, according to the report. Since 2018, in Spain there has been an increasing trend in the suicide mortality rate in all age groups.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has meant, in many ways, an important change at the level of mental health in Spain. The number of cases of suicide in the general population was increased, although in the population of young people and adolescents this impact has not been as significant, nor are changes observed in the comparisons by sex, nationality, and place of residence,” the text states..

“The increasing trend seen in mortality from suicide in Spain since 2018 also seems to be the trend in adolescents,” the document continues.

The total number of deaths by suicide in 2018 was 3,539; in 2019 it rose to 3,671 and in 2020 to 3,941, while in 2021 there were 4,003 deaths by suicide. “The data collected after the start of the Covid pandemic reflect an increase of 5.5% compared to 2018,” says the report, which has not included data for 2022 as it is not yet definitive..

alarming figures

The document highlights the impact of suicide on adolescents and young people. Thus, it points out that suicide is the leading cause of death in young people and adolescents between 12 and 29 years of age.. “Only in 2021, 336 deaths by suicide were registered in this age group in Spain, these figures being alarming,” says the report, which also underlines the fact that “two deaths of children under 12 years of age were registered, raising the figure to 338 suicides in children under 30 years of age in our country”.

In 2021, 173 people between the ages of 24 and 29 died by suicide; 118 with ages between 18 and 23; 45 between 12 and 17 years old and two under 12 years old.

Unlike in the rest of the age groups, in adolescents, the report highlights, no imbalance is observed in the number of deaths in relation to sex.

Thus, while in other age groups there is usually the fact that three out of four deaths by suicide are in males, in adolescents “this ratio has evolved since the beginning of the century from 3:1 to 1:1”.

On the other hand, according to the work data, suicides in young people “tend to occur more frequently in people born in Spain and in residents of provincial capitals.”

In terms of geographic distribution, there are rates of over 7 suicide cases per 100,000 inhabitants in five provinces: Ávila (11.67 per 100,000 inhabitants); Melilla (9.24); Palencia (8.24); Navarra (7.12) and A Coruña (7.05).

The work also indicates the absence of records of cases of suicide in young people and adolescents in the provinces of Cuenca, Guadalajara, La Rioja, Salamanca, Soria, Zamora and Ceuta..

With respect to the moment in which these deaths occur, both in young people and in young adults there is an increase in deaths by suicide in the summer months and after. However, in the case of adolescents this increase is accentuated in the months before and after the summer.