uicide is a devastating public health problem, afflicting individuals, families, and societies. Fortunately, continuous striving by the World Health Organization to strengthen suicide prevention efforts is paying off. The annual number of suicide deaths decreased from 1 million to 800,000 worldwide during recent decades. A gloomy exception to this trend is the increasing rate of suicide in the United States (14.0 per 100,000 in 2017). But Denmark's experience offers some hope that prevention of

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... suicide is possible. Why has its decline in suicide been steeper than in most other countries? Historically, the Danish suicide rate was among the highest in the world. In 1980, it was 38 per 100,000 inhabitants over 15 years of age (Hungary's rate was 52 per 100,000). But the Danish rate then began to decline, reaching 11.4 per 100,000 in 2007, roughly where it still stands today. This is among the lowest in high-income countries. Denmark's strategy for tackling suicide was multipronged and spanned decades. One of the most effective