In 2024, 117 women younger than thirty years old ended their lives. That number has never been so high. That concerning picture is also reflected in the number of young people who end up in the emergency room due to self-harm.
Last year, 1,849 people committed suicide, according to figures from the CBS statistics bureau. That is an average of five suicides per day. According to the Current Dutch Suicide Registration Commission (CANS), that figure is even slightly higher, namely 1,878. That difference can be explained by the fact that CANS counts all suicides in the Netherlands, while the CBS only focuses on Dutch people.
The suicide rate has hardly changed in recent years, but the proportion of young women has increased. Among young women between the ages of ten and thirty, the suicide rate has never been so high. In 2024, that figure was 5.5 per 100,000 Dutch people.
It was previously announced that more and more young people are committing suicide. For example, CANS saw that 312 young people ended their lives last year. A year earlier there were 300. An increasing proportion of them now appear to be women.
“That is very sad and very worrying,” says Professor of Suicide Prevention Renske Gilissen. She recognizes a trend. “We also see this reflected in the number of young people who end up in the emergency room with self-inflicted injuries.”
Earlier figures from VeiligheidNL showed that in 2013, four thousand young women ended up in the emergency room due to self-harm. In 2022 there were six thousand. According to Gilissen, who is also chairman of CANS, more recent figures also show a “significant increase” in the number of young people with self-inflicted injuries. “In some of these cases, it concerns attempted suicide.”
Young Women Talk About It, But Negatively Influence Each Other
Nothing can be said with certainty about the causes, says Gilissen. But 113 Suicide Prevention does conduct research among relatives. “If we look specifically at young women, we see a large group with a lot of healthcare use due to psychological problems. We often also see that they have difficulty finding appropriate care.”
Many young women talk to each other about suicidality. “Of course it is good to talk about it, but it becomes difficult if the stories of hope and recovery are missing,” says Gilissen. According to the professor, there are groups in which women drag each other down and that is “worrying”.
Clinical psychologist Mayke Geerdink agrees. “Talking about your problems is a good way to ease the burden. But we see that negative feelings and self-harming behavior are the main reason for some young women to feel connected to other young women.”
In this way they are drawn into the negativity of the other person, says Geerdink. “That negativity then almost seems to become part of their identity, which means that, for example, they no longer dare to say that they are now better. They are then afraid of losing contact, but also the feeling of connection.”
Social Media Have A Negative Influence
Social media also don’t help with this. “You can find each other even more easily there and research shows that negative communication via these channels is fairly widespread.” Gilissen emphasizes that not enough research has been done to confirm this, but states that there are “certainly signals that social media have a negative influence”.
Gilissen therefore emphasizes that it is important to pay attention to this in every layer of society. “Ask patients, your daughter, your students what they do on social media.” According to Gilissen, there should also be more attention in education to the negative dynamics that prevail among students. Parents can also follow free training courses via vraagmaar.113.nl on how to start the conversation about suicidality.
Social media can also help, says Geerdink, who is also a care manager at 113. “We can also help these young women by, precisely on social media, giving a voice to peers who have found their way to recovery and discussing how they succeeded. Positive examples can motivate and inspire.”
Suicide Among Teenagers is The Main Cause of Death
Among teenagers and people in their twenties, suicide was the leading cause of death last year. According to CBS, this is partly due to the increase in the number of suicides, but also to the decrease in the number of traffic deaths among young people.
But the increase among young women does not give the full picture, says Gilissen. “There are still more men who end their lives.” The number among people in their fifties is still the largest. In 2024, a fifth of all people who ended their lives were in their fifties. Although that proportion is the largest, Gilissen says that there is a cautious decrease among people between the ages of forty and seventy.