The following is a list of suicide rates by country according to data from the World Health Organization (2012) and other sources, in which a country's rank is determined by its total rate deaths officially recorded as suicides in the most recent available year. The WHO statistics are based on the official reports from each respective country, and therefore, no more accurate than the record-keeping in the specific country.
Incidence of suicide tends to be under-reported due to both religious and social pressures,[citation needed] and possibly completely unreported in some areas. Since the data might be skewed, comparing suicide rates between nations is statistically unsound. For example, attempted suicide is illegal in Nepal and people who attempt suicide when caught are subject to imprisonment, fines or both; therefore, any suicide figures for Nepal will underestimate the incidence.[1] Male and female suicide rates are out of total male population and total female population, respectively (i.e. total number of male suicides divided by total male population). The total rate of suicides is based on the total number of suicides divided by the total population, rather than merely the average of the male and female suicide rates, because the gender ratio in most countries is not 1:1. Most countries listed below report that males have a higher suicide rate than females.
^Recently released figures by official Belgian authorities suggest a considerably higher rate of 17.0 persons (total) per 100,000 people per annum in 2009 (5,712 cases in a population of 10,749,000 (=10,666,866 as of 1 January 2008 increasing by 0,77% per annum.) as of 1 January 2009)."Toenemend aantal zelfdodingen in Belgie". 2011.
The updated figure of suicide rates in Belgium for 2011 is 2,084 on a total population of 10,933,607, equivalent to 18.96 per 100,000 inhabitants (source: Het Nieuwsblad, 10 April 2014).
^This data is for urban areas only. Burrows, Stephanie; Lucie Laflamme (February 2006). "Suicide Mortality in South Africa". Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.|access-date= requires |url= (help)http://www.springerlink.com/content/px7v1186u51k738w The data available for the whole of South Africa in 2007 are: men 1.4, women 0.4, total 0.9 (source: WHO)