Suicide Trends in a Mahaweli New Settlement

Sri Lanka has witnessed a dramatic and unprecedented rise in suicide over the past four decades.' The suicide rate for Sri Lanka, which is based on mortality statistics reported by the Registrar-General and/or police records, escalated from 6.5 per 100,000 in 1950 to 56.5 in 1992, a nearly 870 percent increase over a 42 year period (Figure 1). In recent years Sri Lanka has reported one of the highest suicide rates in the world (Table I), necessitating the recognition of suicide as a major social problem in the country.