There were a total of 261 suicides in the country between 2013 and 2022, according to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health Chris Fearne’s response to a Parliamentary Question on Wednesday.

PN MP Ian Vassallo had asked whether the Health Minister would provide statistics showing how many suicides have been reported, year by year, in the last ten years, and the age groups of the suicide victims.

He provided a table with the total amount for the 10 years.

26 individuals below the age of 25 had taken their own lives over the course of the 10 years, as well as: 48 individuals aged between 25 and 34, 58 individuals aged between 35 and 44, 50 individuals aged between 45 and 54, 46 individuals aged between 55 and 64, 17 individuals aged between 65 and 74, and 16 individuals aged over 75.

By year, the statistics show that 2015 and 2021 were the worst years (both with 34 suicides) while the year 2014 had 32 suicides. The rest of the years hover around the low twenties.

One of the years with the highest amount of cases (2021) occurred during COVID, perhaps indicating a slight correlation in the data. But this spike is only marginal when compared to other years.

There were no further identifying statistics aside from the age of the victims given.