Does Zimbabwe have the 13th highest suicide rate in the world?

In an April 30, 2021 report on a suspected suicide by a 12-year-old Bulawayo schoolboy, The Chronicle stated that “Zimbabwe has the 13th highest suicide rate in the world”.

The statistic appears to be based on unofficial sources such as Wikipedia and www.worldlifeexpec

tancy.com, both which cite the World Health Organisation (WHO) as their primary source.

Globally, the availability and quality of data on suicide and suicide attempts is poor.

This is largely due to the sensitivity of suicide, which is legally and culturally frowned upon in many countries.

This often results in under-reporting and misclassification.

The global health body estimates that about 800 000 people commit suicide every year.

The latest available WHO data on suicide, for 2019, shows Zimbabwe has a crude suicide rate of 14,1 deaths per 100 000 population.

This places Zimbabwe in 34th place on a list of 182 countries, the same position the country held in 2018.

However, the data used by both Wikipe

dia and www.worldlifeexpectancy.com if adjusted for age for 2016 and 2018, respectively, shows Zimbabwe with the 13th highest suicide rate.

Both these sources claim to use WHO statistics, although their figures vary significantly with the age-adjusted primary numbers on the WHO website.

In age-adjusted terms, Zimbabwe’s suicide rate is much higher than in crude terms.

On the 2019 list, the country is ranked 7th globally, with 23,6 suicide deaths per 100 000 population. For the years cited by Wikipedia (2016) and www.

worldlifeexpectancy.com (2018), the WHO ranks Zimbabwe 5th and 8th, respectively, in age-adjusted terms.

Zimbabwe does indeed have one of the highest suicide rates in the world.

While two unofficial sources appear to show that the country has the 13th highest suicide rate in the world, the latest available data from the WHO shows otherwise.

Using the latest crude data, Zimbabwe has the 34th highest suicide rate in the world and the fifth in Africa, behind Lesotho, ESwatini, South Africa and Botswana.

In age-adjusted terms, Zimbabwe is in the top 10 of the highest suicide rates in the world, according to 2019 data.