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Summary: World Suicide Prevention Day 2025 occurs on Wednesday, September 10th. This year, the World Health Organization (WHO), the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), and the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) all host and sponsor a wide range of activities and initiatives to help prevent suicide.

Key Points:

  • 720,000 people die by suicide every year worldwide
  • Suicide is the third leading cause of death worldwide for people age 15 to 29
  • Suicide is preventable
  • Education and awareness are the most effective ways for the general public to help prevent suicide
  • Treatment and support are the best ways to reduce likelihood of suicide for at-risk populations

What is World Suicide Prevention Day 2025?

World Suicide Prevention Day 2025 is a day for public institutions, private organizations, communities, and individuals to join together to raise awareness about suicide in order to take proactive steps to prevent suicide and suicidal behavior.

For the years 2024-2026, organizers and advocates from the WHO and IASP established a unifying theme:

“Changing the narrative on suicide”

Here’s how the WHO describes the meaning and importance of this theme:

“This theme calls on us all to challenge harmful myths, reduce stigma, and foster open, compassionate conversations about suicide. It’s about shifting from silence and misunderstanding to openness, empathy, and support, and creating environments where people feel able to speak up and seek help.”

For the organizers at WHO, changing the narrative on suicide also means:

  • Advocating for systemic change
  • Calling on public institutions and governments to prioritize mental health
  • Calling on public institutions and governments to prioritize mental health to allocate more resources to suicide prevention

When governments create policies that support mental health and suicide prevention, both researchers and clinicians can access resources that help them:

  • Develop new, evidence-based strategies for suicide prevention
  • Expand access to support for people experiencing suicidality
  • Enhancing emergency support systems for people in crisis

World Suicide Prevention Day is necessary because over the past 20 years, rates of suicide have steadily increased – with some exceptions – every year.

Let’s take a look at the most recent data.

Suicide and Suicidal Behavior: The Latest Facts and Figures

Here’s the latest data on suicide and suicidality in the U.S., published in the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2023 NSDUH).

Adolescents 12-17:

  • Reported suicidal ideation in past year: 13%
  • Made a suicide plan in past year: 5.9%
  • Attempted suicide in past year: 3.4%

Adults under age 50:

  • Suicidal ideation in past year:
    • 18-25: 12.2%
    • 26-49: 5.9%
  • Made a suicide plan in the past year:
    • 18-25: 4.2%
    • 26-49: 1.6%
  • Attempted suicide in the past year:
    • 18-25: 2.0%
    • 26-49: 0.6%

Adults 18+:

  • Serious thoughts of suicide in the past year, Adults 18+: 5.6%
  • Made a suicide plan in the past year: 1.4%
  • Attempted suicide in the past year: 6%

Those percentages, in numbers, tell us that millions of people think about committing suicide every year and hundreds of thousands make suicide plans every year: those are two compelling reasons to raise awareness about suicide on World Suicide Prevention Day 2025. We’ll end this section with the most disturbing figures available: suicide fatalities.

Suicide Fatalities:

  • 2021: 48,080
  • 2022: 49,437
  • 2023: 49,380

Those figures are both the most disturbing and most persuasive we know of. Disturbing because every suicide fatality is a preventable tragedy, and persuasive because of their sheer size. With the means we have at our disposal in 2025, we know we can do a better job of reducing and preventing suicide.

How Can You Participate in World Suicide Prevention Day 2025?

The National Council for Suicide Prevention (NCSP) designed an approach to suicide prevention called Take 5 To Save Lives. This five-step approach enables anyone to join the suicide prevention movement, and allows them to decide how they can help, while providing them with essential information that can save lives.

Step 1: Educate Yourself on Warning Signs, Factors That Increase Risk, and Factors That Decrease Suicide Risk

Suicide Warning Signs:
  • Talking about suicide, i.e. talking directly about killing themselves, or indirectly about wanting to die.
  • Seeking lethal means to attempt suicide
  • Expressing feelings of intense hopelessness
  • Feeling there’s no reason to live
  • Expressing feelings of being trapped/unable to escape pain of living
  • Feeling like a burden for other people
  • Escalating alcohol/drug use
  • Escalating risky behavior
  • Giving away favorite possessions
  • Severe isolation/withdrawal from others
  • Saying goodbye to friends and loved ones
  • Severe and escalating mood swings
Factors That Increase Risk of Suicide:
  • Previous suicide attempts
  • Family history of suicide
  • Presence of mental illness:
    • Mood disorders
    • Schizophrenia
    • Personality disorders
  • Disordered use of alcohol and substances
  • History of trauma
  • Recent trauma
  • Significant recent loss
  • Significant recent hardship
  • Lack of social support
  • Low access to professional support
  • Access to lethal means
Factors That Decrease Risk of Suicide:
  • Robust social, family, and community support system
  • Easy access to professional mental health support
  • Reduced access to lethal means
  • Personal distress tolerance and stress management skills
  • Cultural, social, or personal beliefs that discourage suicide

Step 2: Know Where to Find Short and Long-Term Help

If you think someone you know is having a suicide crisis, refer them to an emergency crisis line with counselors trained in crisis management:

  • If risk of harm is imminent, call 911 or go to the emergency room.
  • If risk of harm is serious – i.e. it’s a real crisis – call 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.
  • Staff on the 988 crisis line can determine level of need, help a person through the immediate crisis, and refer them for ongoing care.

If you think someone you know is thinking about suicide, you can take these five steps:

  1. Ask them if they’re considering suicide. Evidence shows asking that simple question reduces, rather than increases, risk of suicide
  2. Listen to what they have to say. Listen attentively and don’t interrupt.
  3. Respond with empathy, kindness, and support. Never ignore talk of suicide. Stay with them until the crisis passes, or they engage professional support.
  4. Follow up. Let them know the experience didn’t change your support for them, and that you’re concerned with how they’re doing now and in the future. Follow up within a day or two, and remember, an in-person visit is better than a call and a call is better than a text.
  5. Connect them to support. When you follow up, ask if they found ongoing professional help after the crisis. If they didn’t, help them search for the right support for them.

Step 3: Do Something to Raise Awareness

You’re actually doing that right now: you’re raising awareness in yourself, which you can share with others in several ways. You can advocate for mental health and suicide awareness:

  • In your community
  • In schools
  • At your place of employment

In addition, you can volunteer for non-profits that support mental health advocacy and suicide prevention. Finally, one way to do something to raise awareness is to lead by example by keeping heathy lifestyle and engaging in self-care. Show people how to:

  • Eat well
  • Exercise regularly
  • Manage stress
  • Maintain sleep hygiene

All these behaviors lay the foundation for positive physical and mental wellbeing, which decreases suicide risk. When someone sees you taking care of yourself, you can inspire them to do the same.

Step 4: Make Your Voice Heard

The most important thing to understand about raising awareness is that raising awareness itself saves lives. The more you – and we, collectively, as a society – talk about suicide, the more lives we can say. You can tell people facts like:

Suicide is a leading killer of young people in the United States.

Over 12 million adults considered suicide in 2023.

Almost 50,000 people died by suicide in 2023.

And most importantly:

With proper support and care, suicide is preventable

When you talk about suicide, you do your part to reduce stigma, counteract myths about suicide and suicidality, and increase the likelihood that someone who needs help will seek the help they need. Remember: talking about suicide helps rather than hurts, and even people who look fine may be at risk, if they show warning signs and factors that increase risk are present. Your voice matters. Your voice can save lives.

Step 5: Share What You Know

Share this article – the one you’re reading now – on social media.

The last thing we want you to know is that you don’t need anyone’s permission, a degree in psychology, or a license to talk about suicide, raise awareness, and save lives: all you need is knowledge, compassion, and a willingness to make your voice heard.

Mental Health Support at Crownview Psychiatric Institute

If you or someone you know or love is in crisis, use the crisis lines we supply above. Don’t wait – and never ignore talk of suicide.

If you or someone you know or love has a mental health disorder associated with suicidality or suicide risk, call us here at Crownview. We can help.

About Angus Whyte

Angus Whyte has an extensive background in neuroscience, behavioral health, adolescent development, and mindfulness, including lab work in behavioral neurobiology and a decade of writing articles on mental health and mental health treatment. In addition, Angus brings twenty years of experience as a yoga teacher and experiential educator to his work for Crownview. He’s an expert at synthesizing complex concepts into accessible content that helps patients, providers, and families understand the nuances of mental health treatment, with the ultimate goal of improving outcomes and quality of life for all stakeholders.