Suicide statistics for Lesotho
Age-standardised rate per 100,000 people, 2021, as published by the World Health Organization.
All
36.7
per 100,000 · WHO range 22.3–66.1
Men
55.8
per 100,000 · WHO range 38.2–100.8
Women
20.3
per 100,000 · WHO range 9.7–38.2
The median across all 184 countries WHO publishes is 8.3. Lesotho is above that median — which is a fact about death registration and population health, and not a judgement about the country or the people in it.
The published series, 2000–2021
WHO has published a figure for Lesotho in 22 of the years from 2000 to 2021. We show every one, with its range, below — and we deliberately do not describe the shape of it, because how suicides are investigated and coded can change enough within a country over two decades to move this line on its own, with no change in underlying risk. Read it for how consistent, or how volatile, the country's own published figure has been against its own published range, not as a verdict on direction.
The shaded band is WHO's published uncertainty range for each year, not a stylistic border — where it widens, WHO is less sure of the figure.
| Year | Rate | WHO range |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 17.4 | 9.9–30.1 |
| 2001 | 15.9 | 9.3–26.8 |
| 2002 | 17.2 | 10–28.8 |
| 2003 | 19.5 | 11.3–32.4 |
| 2004 | 20.6 | 12.1–34.1 |
| 2005 | 22.1 | 12.9–36.7 |
| 2006 | 23.7 | 13.4–40.1 |
| 2007 | 27.2 | 15.8–46 |
| 2008 | 20.7 | 12–34.8 |
| 2009 | 20.1 | 11.7–33.9 |
| 2010 | 33.8 | 20.6–57.3 |
| 2011 | 35.3 | 21.7–60 |
| 2012 | 27.6 | 16.8–47.3 |
| 2013 | 30.8 | 18.9–53.1 |
| 2014 | 36.1 | 22.3–63 |
| 2015 | 37 | 22.9–65.2 |
| 2016 | 35.9 | 22.4–63.6 |
| 2017 | 34.7 | 21.5–61.9 |
| 2018 | 36.2 | 22.1–64.8 |
| 2019 | 36.8 | 22.5–65.9 |
| 2020 | 41.3 | 25.1–73.8 |
| 2021 | 36.7 | 22.3–66.1 |
Read against Africa
Across the 54 countries in Africa that WHO publishes a figure for, the median is 10.7 per 100,000. Lesotho sits above that level. Regional comparison is usually more informative than a world one, because neighbouring countries tend to share both the health systems and the death-registration practices that shape the number.
Men and women
The recorded rate for men in Lesotho is 2.7 times the rate for women. Across every country with both figures the median gap is 3.3 times, so Lesotho is close to the pattern seen almost everywhere. That men die this way more often than women, while women are more often recorded as attempting, is one of the most consistent findings in this field and one of the least understood.
Countries with a similar figure
Nearest published rates to Lesotho's. They have nothing else in common — this is only a way of seeing what the number sits beside.
What this number is not
It is an estimate with a published range, not a count. It depends heavily on how deaths are investigated and recorded in Lesotho, which differs between countries far more than most readers expect. And it describes a whole population over a year — it says nothing about any individual, including you.
WHO's range for Lesotho spans about 119% of the estimate, close to the typical 76% — this is one of the better-registered figures in the set.
Help in Lesotho
We do not yet have a verified crisis line for Lesotho. The page below carries the general emergency number and international options.
Source: World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory, indicator MH_12. Retrieved 31 August 2026.