In a Friday-released report, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the number of deaths by suicides committed worldwide by people every year far outnumbers the deaths which wars and murders collectively account for annually.

Underscoring the fact that deaths by suicides is a problem which calls for urgent action so that it can be addressed at the earliest, the WHO report said that, going by the statistics from the organization, “approximately one million people worldwide die by suicide each year;” thereby implying that there is “one death by suicide every 40 seconds.”

Moreover, another disquieting fact that the WHO report – released days ahead of the World Suicide Prevention Day on Monday – revealed was that, while the number of suicide deaths every year was by itself a staggering figure, the number of suicide attempts every year was almost 20 times higher.

To put it differently, the WHO statistics show that almost five percent of the people of the world try to take they own lives at least once during their lifetime.

Noting that the problem of suicide was getting worse, and that “the magnitude of the public health problem of suicidal behaviours” called for urgent action, the WHO report said: “As suicide is largely preventable, it is imperative that governments, through their health, social and other relevant sectors, invest human and financial resources in suicide prevention.”