Geospatial and temporal snapshot of suicide mortality in Spain in 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has been an enormous challenge to people's lives around the world. In Spain, more than 110,000 people died due to pathologies or other conditions where the SARS-CoV-2 virus was present (John Hopkins University, 2022). Since 15 March 2020, a series of measures has been implemented to reduce the virus spread. The situation of pandemic, the measures implemented by national and regional governments, and related consequences (e.g., families losing jobs, social isolation, loss of family members) have led to a significant increase in mental health problems in the Spanish population and medical visits due to suicidal behavior (González-Sanguino et al., 2020; Gracia et al., 2021).

Recently, the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE) has released mortality data for the years 2021 and the first half of 2022. Given that only the 2021 microdata are available, we aim to study to what extent a temporal (in which months have there been more deaths by suicide in 2021?) and geospatial variability may be observed in Spain (in which provinces have there been more deaths by suicide in 2021?).

Below two figures are displayed. The Figure 1 shows the monthly suicide deaths in 2019 (pre-pandemic), 2020 and 2021. In 2021, 4,003 persons died by suicide (an age-adjusted rate of 8.45 persons per 100,000 population). There were more suicide deaths in 2021, in almost every month than in the corresponding pre-pandemic month. The seasonal effect observed in previous years was also evident, but earlier, in 2021: the highest number of deaths was observed between May and August. More than 400 people died by suicide in July (more than 13 people, a day).

Figure 1. Monthly deaths by suicide in Spain between 2019-2021.

Figure 2 shows the mortality rate by Spanish province. A total of 32 Spanish provinces (61.5% of the provinces) showed a crude suicide mortality rate above the national average and 16 provinces had a rate above 10 per 100,000 inhabitants. The provinces with the highest suicide mortality rate in 2021 were Jaen (13.1 per 100,000 inhabitants), Zamora (14.2 per 100,000 inhabitants) and Lugo (15.6 per 100,000 inhabitants), provinces belonging to different autonomous communities.

Figura 2. Suicide mortality rate (crude) by Spanish province in 2021. National mortality rate was 8.45 per 100,000 inhabitantes.

To sum up, the higher rate of people dying by suicide in Spain in the first pandemic year (de la Torre-Luque et al., 2022), still remains increasing in 2021. This is particularly sharped between May and August. On the other hand, the highly dispersed geographical distribution of suicide mortality rates in Spain is still evident in 2021, supporting the need to develop and implement national strategies that lead to comprehensive suicide prevention plans throughout the national territory.