11,334 Suicides in Germany in 2025: Highest Toll Since 1998
October 30, 2026 · Frisian News
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Germany recorded 11,334 suicides in 2025, the highest annual total since 1998, according to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). The figure is 9.3 percent above 2024 and 15.6 percent above the ten-year average, reversing decades of decline.
11,334 people died by suicide in Germany in 2025. That is the highest annual total since 1998, according to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). It is also 9.3 percent more than the 10,372 recorded in 2024, and 15.6 percent above the average of the preceding decade.
The numbers shatter a narrative German health authorities had been building for years. After decades of generally falling totals, suicides have risen by nearly 23 percent since 2020, according to the National Suicide Prevention Programme and the German Academy for Suicide Prevention, which announced the figures on Wednesday in Kassel.
Men accounted for 7,846 deaths, or 69.2 percent of the total, Destatis data show. Their rate stood at about 19 per 100,000 people. Women accounted for 3,488, at a rate of 8.2 per 100,000. The sharpest acceleration came among women, whose numbers rose 17.9 percent from 2024, against a 5.8 percent rise among men.
Nearly half of all suicides involved people aged 65 and older. Deaths in that age group totalled 5,510 in 2025, according to Destatis figures. Major assisted-dying organisations reported more than 1,200 assisted suicides in 2025, and the National Suicide Prevention Programme notes that figure is not recorded separately in Germany's nationwide statistics.
Economic pressure forms part of the picture. German corporate bankruptcies hit a 20-year high in the first quarter of 2026, rmx.news reported. The Youth in Germany 2026 study found that 23 percent of young respondents reported being in debt, the highest level ever recorded in the survey, and 29 percent said they needed psychological support, another record high, rising to 42 percent among unemployed respondents.
The German Academy for Suicide Prevention described the rising figures as a warning sign. "It is time to invest in suicide prevention," said Georg Fiedler, the organisation's executive board member. "Anyone thinking about suicide must be able to find support quickly and easily." Barbara Schneider of the National Suicide Prevention Programme said the trend among older women was "particularly worrying" and called for targeted services that are easily accessible for that group.
The German Society for Suicide Prevention has called for rapid passage of a well-funded national suicide prevention law, saying existing efforts must be placed on a firmer legal footing. Destatis notes that suicides account for 1.1 percent of all deaths in Germany. More people die by suicide each year than from traffic accidents, homicides, and AIDS combined, according to statisticians cited by rmx.news.
The prevention infrastructure was supposed to make numbers like these a thing of the past. It has not.
Published October 30, 2026 · Frisian News