🕯️Mental health· 2022-2026
668 suicides in 2025, and more attempts than the year before
Uruguay fell to 19.16 suicide deaths per 100,000 people, the lowest figure in a decade, but it remains among the highest in the Americas and attempts rose.
Bodies involved
Ministerio de Salud Pública · ASSE
What it is
Suicide is the mental health problem that causes the most deaths in Uruguay. The Health Ministry released the figures on 17 July in both 2025 and 2026. In July 2025 the ministry reported that 2024 closed at a rate of 21.35 per 100,000, a slight fall from the 2022 peak of 23.2, and that suicide attempts had risen from 132.42 per 100,000 in 2023 to 161.74 in 2024, while warning that the increase “could be linked” to improvements in recording systems. In the same statement it announced it would evaluate the 2021-2025 National Suicide Prevention Strategy to design the next one, projected for 2026-2030, and would strengthen the National Honorary Suicide Prevention Commission and the departmental groups.
What is questioned
On 17 July 2026 the ministry released the 2025 data: 668 suicide deaths, against 764 in 2024, 763 in 2023 and 823 in 2022, a rate of 19.16 per 100,000, the lowest since 2015 (18.55). Men accounted for 79% and women for 21%. In parallel, suicide attempts stood at 6,140 episodes by 5,144 people, 72% women, according to Subrayado and El Observador. Ámbito recorded seven suicides in the 10-14 age bracket during 2025 and noted that Uruguay “keeps one of the highest levels on the continent”. The ministry asked that a triumphalist reading be avoided and said every department still shows concerning indicators. In March 2025 an analysis circulated by the university's psychology faculty attributed part of the problem to how resources are distributed: “85% of psychologists are concentrated in the metropolitan area” and the lack of child psychiatrists in Artigas “may influence the figures”.
Why it matters to you
Uruguay's 2025 rate of 19.16 per 100,000 is still more than double the Latin American average of nine cited in the analysis circulated by the psychology faculty, and the gap is not only clinical: it is about resources and geography. With 85% of psychologists in the metropolitan area, a teenager in Artigas has a worse chance of getting care than one in Montevideo.
Where it stands
As of this file (August 2026), the prevention helpline publicised by the ministry is 0800 0767 (*0767 from mobiles), according to Subrayado. In July 2025 the ministry had announced it was evaluating the 2021-2025 National Strategy to guide the next one, planned for 2026-2030; the sources consulted do not contain the final text of that new strategy. There are no developments after 17 July 2026.
This money does not travel through state procurement
The contract-by-contract cross-reference is not available for this file. The money is executed through a channel the public-procurement open data does not record, so putting a total here would be inventing it. The cited sources are, for now, the only public quantification.
Where it goes instead
Public-private partnerships (PPP), trusts, state-to-state contracts, direct agreements, or a state company's own budget. None of those channels publish their awards on the Compras Estatales portal.
Campaigns, helplines and prevention materials are traceable purchases and agreements; psychological and psychiatric care is not, because each provider delivers it with its own staff. The procurement search cannot measure how much the country invests in suicide prevention.
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