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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
The number of children and adolescents who died by suicide in Poland rose by nearly 27% last year, underscoring concern among experts about young people’s mental health.
Police recorded 161 suicide deaths among people aged 7 to 18 in 2025, up from 127 a year earlier, according to figures obtained by the mental health foundation GrowSPACE. It was the highest number of suicides among minors since 2022.
However, the number of suicide attempts (including those that ended in death) in that age group declined by 4%, from 2,181 in 2024 to 2,086 in 2025, reversing a trend of steady increases seen since 2020.
Among children aged 7 to 12, police recorded 88 suicide attempts, five of which resulted in death.
GrowSPACE notes that, while the upward trend in suicide attempts among children and adolescents appears to have been halted, the rise in deaths shows that mental healthcare and school-based prevention programmes remain essential.
“This is not a topic to be ashamed of; on the contrary, young people should be talked to directly,” said Dominik Kuc of GrowSPACE. “Schools need to talk openly about challenges, counteracting peer violence, digital safety and ways of providing support.”
Danuta Sowińska, a suicidologist, told GrowSPACE that the “suicide crisis” among young people represents “a real, growing public health problem”.
She noted that “depression plays a particular role here, but is still often downplayed – both within families and within the education and healthcare systems”.
Suicide attempts among children and adolescents have risen sharply in recent years and are now more than five times higher than a decade ago. The steepest increase came in 2021, amid the pandemic, when police data showed an 86% annual jump.
An audit ordered by Poland’s Supreme Audit Office (NIK) found that remote learning during the pandemic worsened children’s mental and physical health. In 2023, a survey of 185,000 school pupils in Poland found that almost a third say they have no will to live and almost one in 10 have attempted suicide.
Last year, UNICEF, the UN’s children’s agency, published findings showing that the mental well-being of young people in Poland deteriorated significantly between 2019, when 75% reported feeling happy, and 2024, when the figure stood at 59%.
Mental health pressures extend beyond minors. Over the past decade, suicide attempts among the general population more than doubled, from 4,042 in 2014 to 10,135 in 2024. However, deaths by suicide fell by 21.4%.
UN children's agency @UNICEF warns that "the psychosocial condition of children is deteriorating" in Poland.
It found that 59% of children report feeling happy, down from 75% in 2019. Only 38% say teachers respect their rights, compared to 70% previously https://t.co/9yKLppa5kK
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) February 5, 2025
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Alicja Ptak is deputy editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She has written for Clean Energy Wire and The Times, and she hosts her own podcast, The Warsaw Wire, on Poland’s economy and energy sector. She previously worked for Reuters.
