Self-harm statistics worldwide

Updated October 2026

If you have hurt yourself and need care, or you feel unsafe right now, contact your local emergency number or a crisis line. Our list of helplines and crisis lines worldwide covers many countries.

Self-harm is common, especially among young people. A worldwide review of studies, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, found that 13.7% of children and adolescents had deliberately harmed themselves at some point ¹. The key figures below give more detail. Self-harm means deliberately hurting your own body. People often describe it as a way of coping with overwhelming feelings, releasing tension or feeling something when they feel numb. It is a sign of distress that deserves care, not judgement, and people do recover.

Studies count self-harm in different ways. Some ask only about self-harm without any wish to die. Others count all deliberate self-harm whatever the intent. Some survey the public; others count visits to health services, which see only part of what happens. Each figure here names the kind of self-harm, the people it counts and the year.

Terms used on this page: An odds ratio compares how likely something is in one group with another: above one means more likely, below one less likely. A meta-analysis, or pooled estimate, combines the results of many studies into one figure. A cohort study follows the same group of people over time.

Getting help

If something on this page reflects what you are going through, you do not have to manage it alone. Our guide to finding the right therapist explains how to choose someone qualified, and the TherapyRoute directory lists therapists in many countries.

If you are in crisis or thinking about suicide, our list of helplines and crisis lines worldwide gives free services by country. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.

Young people worldwide

A review pooled school and community studies of children and adolescents from many countries. Prevalence means the share of a group who have done something, here ever in their lives or in the past year. If you are in distress right now, see our helplines and crisis lines worldwide.

• Pooling studies worldwide, a review found that 22.1% of children and adolescents had ever self-harmed without suicidal intent. (pooled from prevalence studies, lifetime (ever), published 2019) ¹
• Pooling studies worldwide, a review found that 19.5% of children and adolescents had self-harmed without suicidal intent in the past year. (pooled from prevalence studies, past 12 months, published 2019) ¹
• In Asia, studies of children and adolescents found that 25.7% had self-harmed without suicidal intent, with studies of lifetime and past-year self-harm pooled together. (pooled from prevalence studies, published 2019) ¹
• In North America, 18.7% of children and adolescents in the pooled studies had self-harmed without suicidal intent, counting lifetime and past-year self-harm together. (pooled from prevalence studies, published 2019) ¹
• In Europe, 18.4% of children and adolescents in the pooled studies had self-harmed without suicidal intent, counting lifetime and past-year self-harm together. (pooled from prevalence studies, published 2019) ¹

Changes over time

Repeated surveys in England and Norway show self-harm reported far more often in recent rounds than in the earliest ones. The Norwegian rounds used different samples and question wording: a nationwide survey in the earlier round and school surveys in fifty-four municipalities in the later one. The English survey is the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey for NHS England; the Norwegian one surveys school students in grades eight to ten. Part of the change may be greater willingness to talk about it. If you are in distress right now, see our helplines and crisis lines worldwide.

• In England in 2007, 3.8% of adults aged sixteen to seventy-four said they had ever self-harmed without suicidal intent. (survey, lifetime (ever), 2007 data) ⁵
• In England in 2014, 6.4% of adults aged sixteen to seventy-four said they had ever self-harmed without suicidal intent. (survey, lifetime (ever), 2014 data) ⁵
• In England in 2023/4, 10.3% of adults aged sixteen to seventy-four said they had ever self-harmed without suicidal intent. (survey, lifetime (ever), 2023/4 data) ⁵
• In 2002, a nationwide survey found that 4.1% of school students in grades eight to ten in Norway said they had harmed themselves in the past year. (survey, past 12 months, 2002 data) ³

National figures

Surveys and health records show self-harm in every region studied. If you are in distress right now, see our helplines and crisis lines worldwide.

• In Australia, 1.7% of people aged 16 to 85 had self-harmed in the past year. (survey, past 12 months, 2020-2022 data) ²
• Among college students aged eighteen and over in nine states of India, 21% had self-harmed without suicidal intent at some point in their lives. (survey, lifetime (ever), 2019 data) ⁶
• Among college students aged eighteen and over in nine states of India, 12.1% had self-harmed without suicidal intent in the past year. (survey, past 12 months, 2019 data) ⁶
• In South Africa, a study of private medical insurance records estimated that 2.1% of insured girls and young women aged fifteen to twenty-four would visit health care for self-harm within five years. That was the highest of any age and sex group. (cohort study, 2011-2022 data) ⁷
• In Brazil in 2022, health services formally reported (notified) self-harm at a rate of 70.06 per 100,000 people. (administrative records, 2022 data) ⁸
• Between 2011 and 2022, health services in Brazil recorded 720,480 formal reports (notifications) of self-harm. (administrative records, 2011-2022 data) ⁸

Help that works

A Cochrane review gathered trials of psychological and social treatments for adults who had self-harmed ⁴. It found that therapy based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) may help, seen when researchers checked on people again later (longer follow-up). The clearest results, for mentalisation-based and emotion-regulation therapies, came from trials of adults diagnosed with borderline personality disorder ⁴. Mentalisation-based therapy helps people make sense of their own and other people's feelings and intentions; emotion-regulation therapy teaches ways to manage intense feelings. An odds ratio below one means repeat self-harm was less likely with the treatment than without it.

• A Cochrane review gathered 76 trials of psychological and social treatments for adults who had self-harmed. (meta-analysis of trials, published 2021) ⁴
• Two small trials by one research group included women aged eighteen to sixty with borderline personality disorder, or some of its signs but not enough for a diagnosis. In these trials, group emotion-regulation therapy may have reduced repeat self-harm by the end of treatment compared with usual treatment (odds ratio 0.34). The evidence was of moderate certainty. (meta-analysis of trials, published 2021) ⁴

Figures by country, side by side

These rows count different things: survey answers, student responses and visits to health services. Read each row with its label, and do not rank the countries. If you are in distress right now, see our helplines and crisis lines worldwide.

How to read these figures

Most self-harm never reaches a hospital or clinic. Figures from health records count only the episodes that do, so they are far lower than survey figures.

Survey questions differ. Some ask only about self-harm without a wish to die; others ask about any deliberate self-harm. The answers are not interchangeable.

The two pooled youth figures for lifetime self-harm measure different things. One counts self-harm without suicidal intent; the other counts deliberate self-harm whatever the intent, the broader term. The review pooled each figure from a different set of studies, the ones that reported it. That is why the narrower measure comes out higher than the broader one.

Pooled reviews average studies with different ages, methods and settings, and their ranges are wide.

A rise in reported self-harm can reflect more people feeling able to say so, as well as more self-harm.

People can talk about self-harm, and help is available: for many people, therapy and support reduce self-harm over time. A good first step is telling someone you trust, or seeing a doctor, psychologist or counsellor who can listen without judgement and help you find other ways to cope. Our guides on self-harm and helping people who self-harm explain more, including how to support someone close to you.

Our guide on how to find the right therapist explains what to look for. If you are in distress or feel unsafe right now, see our helplines and crisis lines worldwide.

Cite this page: TherapyRoute. Self-harm statistics worldwide. https://www.therapyroute.com/article/self-harm-statistics-worldwide-by-therapyroute. Last updated 15 October 2026.

References

1. [1] Global Lifetime and 12-Month Prevalence of Suicidal Behavior, Deliberate Self-Harm and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury in Children and Adolescents between 1989 and 2018: A Meta-Analysis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (Lim et al.), 2019 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
2. [2] National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, 2020-2022. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 5 October 2023 abs.gov.au.
3. [3] Change in prevalence of self-harm from 2002 to 2018 among Norwegian adolescents. European Journal of Public Health (Tørmoen et al.), 2020 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
4. [4] Psychosocial interventions for self-harm in adults. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (Witt et al.), 2021 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
5. [5] Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2023/4. NatCen Social Research for NHS England (Morris et al.), 27 November 2025 natcen.ac.uk.
6. [6] Mental Health, Suicidality, Health, and Social Indicators Among College Students Across Nine States in India. Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine (Cherian et al.), 11 May 2024 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
7. [7] Incidence and prognostic factors of self-harm and subsequent unnatural death in South Africa: A cohort study. PLOS Medicine (Skrivankova et al.), 2025 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
8. [8] The rising trends of self-harm in Brazil: an ecological analysis of notifications, hospitalisations, and mortality between 2011 and 2022. The Lancet Regional Health – Americas (Oliveira Alves et al.), 2024 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.