Suicide epidemic

last updated 8 January 2015

Beijing

Suicide is now the leading cause of death among young adults in China, the government said this week. A quarter of a million Chinese kill themselves every year, and another 3 million make unsuccessful suicide attempts. Many suicides are college students who leave notes expressing their regret at failing to live up to their parents’ expectations. “Society is full of pressure and competition, so young people, lacking experience in dealing with difficulties, tend to get depressed,” Liu Hong, a Beijing psychiatrist, told China Daily. China has just one psychiatrist for every 100,000 people, compared with 16 per 100,000 in the U.S.