Global suicide rates highest among older adults, particularly men, study finds
Around the world, suicide rates are higher among older adults than all other age groups combined—and higher among older men than older women, according to a new study.
The study was published July 11 in The Lancet Healthy Longevity. Hanseul Cho, who earned an MPH in quantitative methods in 2025 from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, was co-first author, and Harvard Chan’s Alexander Tsai was also a co-author. Other co-authors came from universities in South Korea, France, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Italy.
Using data from the WHO Mortality Database, the study analyzed 687,443 suicide deaths among adults age 65 and older from 47 countries and territories from 1996 to 2021, out of nearly 3.5 million suicide deaths in the total population during that period. Researchers determined which suicide methods were used and projected future suicide rates through 2050.
They found that suicide deaths were significantly higher among adults age 65 and older than among individuals of all age groups (15.99 per 100,000 individuals vs. 10.87 per 100,000). Suicide rates were much higher among older men than older women (29.24 vs. 6.47 per 100,000). Researchers found that, in this older population, the most common method of suicide was hanging. Also, older adults used firearms more frequently in suicides compared with the total population—and firearm suicides were notably higher in older men than in older women (5.46 vs. 0.16 per 100,000).
Suicide deaths declined between 1996 and 2021, from 23.34 per 100,000 individuals to 15.99 per 100,000, with a larger decline among women than among men. But researchers projected that the rate of decline would slow by 2050.
Factors influencing suicide rates included poverty rates, alcohol use disorders, mental disorders, firearm ownership, and use of pesticides in croplands, the study found.
With the global population aging, the issue of suicide among older people will grow more pressing, the authors noted. Their findings, they wrote, “underscore the need for rigorous monitoring and targeted strategies for vulnerable subgroups, such as older men and those in the most advanced age groups.”
Read a Medscape article: Suicide by Firearms: A Concern Among Elderly Men?
