Suicide in China

China's suicide rates were one of the highest in the world in the 1990s. However, by 2011, China had one of the lowest suicide rates in the world. According to the World Health Organization, the suicide rate in China was 9.7 per 100,000 population as of 2016. Among men, the rate was 9.1 per 100,000 population. As a comparison, the suicide rate in the U.S. in 2016 was 15.3. Generally speaking, China seems to have a lower suicide rate than neighboring Korea, Russia and Japan, and it is more common among women than men and more common in the Yangtze Basin than elsewhere.

Aside from the global suicide rate surge during the 2008 financial crisis, China's suicide rates have been declining since the late 20th century. In the 1990s China was among the countries with the highest suicide rates in the world (above 20 per 100,000), but by the 2008 financial crisis, they kept dropping as significantly (as they were by the end of 1990s) with the main force having been migration from rural to urban areas. By 2011, China had one of the lowest suicide rates in the world. Between 1990 and 2016, suicide rates in China fell by 64%, making China the number 1 country in the world in suicide reduction.