Suicides Increased by 16% in 2009

During 2009, 280 people committed suicide in Estonia , +16% of the people who made the same tragic choice in 2008, which then means that nearly a half of unnatural deaths in the country were results of a suicide.

Other major causes of unnatural deaths during 2009 were traffic accidents, that caused the death of 100 people, murder or manslaughter, 69 people, work-related accidents, 17, and drowning, 63 people.

Suicides form 47% of unnatural deaths in 2009, increasing from the 37% registered in 2008 and 33% in 2007.

Estonian Interior Ministry pointed out that this number of suicides demand an effective crisis aid and counseling.

Estonian security policy implementation analysis affirmed that “We have managed to reduce traffic deaths by a half in the past two years as the result of a combination of different measures but preventing suicides has not been a priority in the state and it is clear that not enough has been worked on it”.