New Dashboard Highlights Suicide and Suicide Risk Trends in Lithuania

Suicide and suicide risk trends in Lithuania can now be monitored in one place through a new dashboard developed by the Institute of Hygiene and the State Data Agency (SDA). The dashboard presents monthly indicators that enable analysis of the situation at both national and municipal levels, allowing for timely assessment of trends by age, sex, type of place of residence, social status, and family status. Until now, Lithuania did not have a publicly available tool that enabled the systematic monitoring of these indicators in a single location. The dashboard therefore has the potential to serve as a new starting point for the development of prevention programmes.

The development of the dashboard was funded by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Lithuania.

The Indicators Reveal Both Challenges and Opportunities

The dashboard is designed for professionals working in suicide prevention, policymakers, and researchers, but it is also public and accessible to everyone. In particular, municipal representatives can analyse data relevant to their municipality and use the insights to plan more targeted prevention measures, taking into account residents’ age, social status, disability, and other characteristics.

“Systematic monitoring helps us better understand not only the scale of the suicide problem, but also how it changes over time and differs across population groups and municipalities. Presenting data publicly and in an understandable way also contributes to raising public awareness of suicide prevention”, notes Lalita Hacker, Head of the Suicide Prevention Unit at the Institute of Hygiene.

The dashboard already reveals significant differences between population groups. For example, the suicide rate among men is nearly five times higher than among women. At the same time, the dashboard also highlights positive trends.

One of the dashboard’s indicators, the number of suicide risk cases, shows how many times residents sought medical assistance due to self-harm or suicidal thoughts. The fact that this indicator is increasing, particularly among younger age groups, while the number of deaths is not rising, suggests greater public openness to seeking psychological support and reduced stigma surrounding mental health issues.

From the Initial Idea to Technical Implementation

The development of the dashboard was initiated by the Institute of Hygiene in cooperation with representatives of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Lithuania and suicide prevention experts. The Institute of Hygiene selected the indicators and breakdowns relevant for monitoring, coordinated them with experts, oversaw the involvement of participating institutions, and ensured the correct use of terminology. Analysts from the State Data Agency methodologically assessed the principles for calculating the indicators, integrated and aggregated data from various sources, calculated the indicators within the State Data Governance Information System, and developed both the dashboard and its design.

The dashboard is fully automated and will be updated monthly using the latest available administrative register data.

A significant part of the work involved presenting the indicators in a way that would be clear and easily understandable to people from different professional backgrounds.

“When developing a dashboard, the goal is not to display as many indicators or breakdowns as possible, as this can result in an overloaded view that may be difficult even for specialists to understand. Therefore, we devoted considerable time to selecting the population groups and data breakdowns most relevant to the public. We carefully considered the placement of every element in the visualisations and even the colour palettes, ensuring that they were visually coherent while avoiding stereotypical or unpleasant associations”, says Simona Zubavičiūtė, Data Analyst at the State Data Agency.

It is also important to note that confidentiality protection methods have been applied within the dashboard to ensure that the indicators are as useful as possible while safeguarding individuals belonging to these particularly sensitive groups. More detailed data may be accessed within the State Data Agency’s secure environment upon submission of specific applications, for example for scientific research purposes. “The value of data becomes evident when it helps us better understand the real situation and how it changes over time”, adds the State Data Agency analyst.

Part of a Broader Suicide Prevention Monitoring Framework

The dashboard was developed within the broader context of strengthening the monitoring of support provided to individuals at risk of suicide.

Following the 2024 update of the Description of the Procedure for Providing Assistance to Persons at Risk of Suicide by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Lithuania, greater emphasis has been placed on monitoring the effectiveness of the support system. The new dashboard is one of the tools designed to systematically assess indicators related to suicide and suicide risk cases, track changes and trends over time, and provide information necessary for planning and improving prevention measures. At the same time, monitoring the provision and effectiveness of support services for people experiencing suicide risk remains a key priority.

The Suicide and Suicide Risk Monitoring Dashboard is publicly available on the Official Statistics Portal and the Lithuanian Data Portal.

Last updated: 10-09-2026

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