Santo Domingo – In 2021, 670 people committed suicide in the country, 12.1% more than in 2020 (597). Of this figure, 86.7% corresponds to mensaccording to data from the National Statistics Office (ONE).
13.3% corresponds to women.
In the Accidental Death Yearbook, the ONE details that 48.4% of the suicides that occurred in 2021 corresponded to ages between 25 and 49 years; Also noteworthy are the suicides of people over 65 years of age and over with 14.0%.
For the years of the analyzed period, the highest number of suicides occurred in the years: 2021, 2018, 2012 and 2011; with 670, 648 and 638 and 637, respectively.
Suicide averages so far this year
The monthly average of suicide was 8.3%. In the distribution by month of the suicides registered in the year 2021, it is verified that the months with the highest percentages were September; October, with 10.9% and 10.0%, July and August with 9.1% each. In the month of February, a lower percentage of suicides was registered with 6.3% of the total.
As for the age groups with the lowest percentage, there are people under 15 years of age, as occurs with other violent deaths.
94.8% of the suicides registered in the year 2021 corresponded to Dominican nationals, followed by Haitian nationals with 3.7%, the remaining 1.5% was distributed among citizens of eight countries.
By means used, it is observed that the methods most used by people were hanging-respiratory suffocation and toxic substance-poison, with a joint percentage of 82.7%, firearms were used by 10.4% of the total cases .
The remaining 6.9 used other types of methods used. It is important to mention that the medium used did not show differences in sex.
Almost half of the suicides in 2021 occurred from Saturday to Monday, with 49.2%. Between Tuesday through Thursday, relatively fewer suicides occurred with an average of 12.7% suicides per day.
56.8% of suicides occurred between 6:01 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., and 28.3% between 4:01 p.m. and 12:00 midnight.
The region with the highest percentage of suicides was the Metropolitan with 27.2% of the total suicides registered in the year 2021; Other regions with a high percentage of suicides were Cibao Norte and Valdesia, with 20.9% and 11.9%, respectively. The average number of suicides between the regions is 9.1%.
Indicators of deaths by suicide
The gross rate of suicides per hundred thousand inhabitants in the period between 2007 and 2021 had an average of 6.7. Likewise, it is verified that the highest rates of the analyzed period correspond to the years 2011 and 2012 with 7.6 and 7.5 suicides per hundred thousand inhabitants; the year 2021 registered a rate of 7.1 suicides per hundred thousand inhabitants.
Source: Yearbook of accidental deaths
