More than one in every 100 deaths worldwide is due to suicide, the World Health Organization said, calling for urgent action to halt the growing mental health crisis, especially among young people.

The WHO said that although global suicide rates have fallen somewhat in recent years, progress in tackling the problem has been too slow.

In 2021, the last year for which data is available, there were about 727,000 suicides worldwide, the UN health agency said, as quoted by AFP.

"Globally, suicide accounts for more than one in every 100 deaths, and for every death, there are 20 suicide attempts," said Deborah Kestel, acting head of the WHO's non-communicable diseases and mental health department.

These suicides "affect countless other lives and livelihoods, as friends, relatives, and loved ones are forced to cope with unimaginable difficulties," she stressed.

The WHO report "Global Mental Health Today" noted that suicide remains a leading cause of death among young people in different geographical and socioeconomic contexts.

In 2021, it was the second leading cause of death among girls and women aged 15 to 29 and the third leading cause of death among men in the same age group, the report said.

Despite a 35% global reduction in the age-adjusted suicide rate between 2000 and 2021, the world has not yet achieved its goal: instead of the target reduction of one-third in the suicide rate between 2015 and 2030, current progress indicates that only a 12 percent reduction will be achieved, according to the WHO.

A reduction has been observed in all regions except the Americas, where the suicide rate has increased by 17% over the same period.

Almost three-quarters of all suicides occur in lower-income countries, where the majority of the world's population lives.

Although richer countries have higher suicide rates as a proportion of the population, it is difficult to make comparisons because they usually have better data than lower-income countries, the WHO said.

The agency warned that while the suicide rate is slowly declining, the prevalence of mental disorders such as anxiety and depression is increasing.

"Between 2011 and 2021, the number of people living with mental disorders increased faster than the global population," the report said.

According to the latest data, more than one billion people live with mental disorders.

The WHO expressed particular concern about the growing mental health problems among young people.

While there are likely a number of factors contributing to this increase, Mark van Omeren, head of the WHO's mental health department, said that "the two main hypotheses are social media and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic."

In this context, the WHO expressed concern about the "stagnation" in mental health investment worldwide, with average government spending on mental health remaining at only 2% of the total health budget – unchanged since 2017.

Globally, only 9% of people with depression receive treatment, the study found.

"Transforming mental health services is one of the most pressing challenges in public health," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. | BGNES