The WHO reported no suicide spike after Trump’s victory

Crisis hotlines reported a surge in calls after US President-elect Donald Trump won the 2024 race for the White House, but social media posts sharing World Health Organization (WHO) data showing a spike in suicides , are incorrect. The agency does not report such deaths daily, and there are no available figures to support this claim.

“Today, 2,038 suicides have been reported @realDonaldTrump election victory,” says X of November 6, 2024 after.

An accompanying screenshot attributes the figure to the WHO prevention of suicide program website.

Screenshot of X taken on November 7, 2024

Similar claims circulated elsewhere on X, Facebook And Instagram.

Trump’s victory urged A range by reactions by to land about the sphere. However, the WHO reported no spike in suicides.

“The online claim is not true,” a spokesperson said in a Nov. 8 email.

The resource page for the agency suicide prevention program does not have a daily suicide tracker or recent figures to support the messages (archived here).

‘Not exactly expected’

A keyword search revealed the seems to be coming from the website worldmeters.info (archived here). Although it quotes the WHO, the link diversions to a broken web page (archived here).

A FAQ section of the Worldometer website say: “For these counters we show estimated current figures based on statistics and projections from the most reputable official organizations” (archived here).

However, the site cautions that the figures are “not expected to be accurate to the nearest digit, but to provide a reasonably accurate and informative description of a phenomenon. This hereditary limitation must be taken into account for the correct interpretation of the information .”

That of the WHO most recent available dataset about deaths by suicide is from 2019. The WHO is in general mortality database has not been updated since February 2024 (archived here And here).

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) most recent preliminary databased on death certificates (archived here), is also only available via March 2024.

AFP contacted Worldometer for comment but received no response.

Crisis calls spiked

Although the posts falsely cite WHO data to promote claims of a suicide spike, two major crisis hotlines did experience a spike before and after November 5.

The Trevor Projectwhich offers free services to LGBTQ youth ages 13 to 24, reported a nearly 700 percent increase in calls on November 6 compared to the previous weeks (archived here).

The Crisis text linea nonprofit organization that provides free, confidential, text-based mental health care and crisis intervention, also told American media there was a more than 50 percent increase in conversations from LGBTQ texters from the Friday before Election Day (archived here).

According to the WHO, more than 720,000 people die by suicide every year worldwide. Estimates CDC data shows that an average of 135 Americans die by suicide every day (archived here).

AFP has debunked other claims about the 2024 US presidential election here.

The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is a hotline for people in crisis or those who want to help someone else. To speak to a trained listener, call 988. Visit 988lifeline.org for crisis chat services or for more information.