Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the social and economic disruption that it left behind, suicide rates in Lithuania increased rapidly. They climbed in the early 1990s and reached a peak in 1995. At 45 suicide deaths per 100,000 people, the country had one of the highest rates in the world.
But in the last few decades, rates have more than halved. You can see this in the chart.
Several factors likely contributed to the decline. Economic conditions improved, with average incomes more than doubling over just a decade from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s and continuing to rise thereafter. In 2007, the country launched its first National Mental Health Strategy. A decade ago, it also developed a Suicide Prevention Bureau and a Suicide Prevention Action Plan.
This progress has saved many lives. Yet today it still has some of the highest rates in the world. That’s because suicide rates have not only fallen strongly in Lithuania, but in many countries — estimates for the global suicide rate suggest a 40% decline since 1995.