The country’s lax assisted dying rules may be contributing to the rising death toll, experts warn
Germany has seen its highest annual suicide toll in nearly three decades, with 11,334 deaths recorded last year, according to the Federal Statistical Office. Experts suggest that the surge may be linked to a loosely regulated assisted-suicide system, which allows even healthy adults to seek help ending their lives.
The data set released earlier this month and analyzed in greater detail on Wednesday by Germany’s National Suicide Prevention Program (NaSPro) found a rise of 962 suicides, or 9.3%, in 2025, taking the annual toll to its highest level since 1998.
The total was greater than the approximately 7,677 people killed in traffic accidents, homicides, illegal-drug-related deaths and AIDS combined, the report said, adding that men accounted for 69.2% of suicides.
Since 2021, the annual total has climbed 23% though the number of suicides remains below its historical peak of 18,825 in 1981, NaSPro said.
While men accounted for most suicides, the increase was disproportionately concentrated among women, whose deaths rose 17.9%, compared with 5.8% among men. Most suicides (73.7%) also occur in the over-50 age group.
Although hanging remained the most common method of suicide (4,145), it was followed by medication (2,848 cases), which saw a striking surge compared to 2024, when it accounted for 2,002 deaths. This category alone accounted for nearly 88% of the entire annual increase.
The latest figures also point to an increase in suicide deaths among the German youth: among girls aged 15 to 19, deaths surged from 52 in 2024 to 84 in 2025, while the overall toll among teenagers rose from 188 to 208. Suicide accounted for approximately 18% of all deaths among people aged five to 24.
While the German government did not offer a definitive explanation for the dramatic increase, multiple experts linked it to the expansion of assisted suicides, which are not separately identified in official mortality statistics. Three major organizations providing such services reported 1,287 assisted deaths last year, up from 977 in 2024 and just 346 in 2021; medication is also the most common method used in assisted suicides.
Germany’s legal framework permits assisted suicide even for people who are not terminally ill or suffering from incurable conditions. Individuals willing to go this path are not required to provide any justification, and in principle, even a physically healthy young adult can legally seek assistance if the decision is voluntary, informed, and enduring. However, nobody is obliged to assist, and euthanasia performed directly by another person remains illegal.
Ulrich Hegerl, chairman of the German Depression Aid and Suicide Prevention Foundation, criticized what he described as the country’s “extreme position” on the matter, warning that “when assisted suicide becomes normalized as a service, this threshold is lowered, and the number of tragic, preventable suicides rises.”
Suicide researcher Ute Lewitzka of Goethe University Frankfurt, meanwhile, has offered another explanation, describing the surge as a crisis phenomenon. She suggested that financial hardship and uncertainty can intensify suicidal thoughts among vulnerable people, while social media could also contribute. Lewitzka also criticized what she described as Germany’s inadequate access to psychological care.
