In 2024, WHO estimates that suicide attempts may be about 10 to 40 times higher than suicide deaths, a gap that matters when cyberbullying and self-harm get tangled. At the same time, U.S. adults still report cyberbullying at measurable rates and youth keep ranking suicide among the top causes of death. This post brings together findings from multiple countries and large studies to show how online harassment can link to suicidal ideation, attempts, and depression outcomes.
Key Takeaways
- In the U.S., suicide was the 2nd leading cause of death for ages 20–24 in 2022 (rank in cause-of-death list)
- 703 people died by suicide in Australia in 2022 (count of suicides by suicide deaths)
- WHO estimates suicide attempts can be about 10–40 times higher than suicide deaths (multiplicative relationship)
- 1 in 5 U.S. youth (20%) reported having been bullied online at some point in 2022–2023 (percentage of youth)
- 10.5% of U.S. adults reported being cyberbullied (percentage of adults; 2022)
- In a 2016–2019 study across 40 countries, 10% of adolescents reported being cyberbullied (percentage of adolescents)
- 24% of adolescents who reported online harassment also reported experiencing suicidal thoughts (percentage; linked online harassment and self-harm outcomes in a large study)
- 5.9% of adolescents in the study sample reported cyberbullying exposure (percentage of adolescents)
- Cyberbullying victimization was associated with a 1.89× higher odds of suicide attempts in a meta-analysis (relative risk/odds measure)
- In a 2021 report on online safety, platforms reported removing 95% of confirmed hate and harassment content within 24 hours (percentage; content moderation metric)
- YouTube’s transparency reporting shows 1.3 billion videos blocked for violating policies in 2023 (count of blocked videos)
- Microsoft reported that it detected and blocked 99.9% of known malicious content on platforms via its safety systems (percentage; security detection)
- 33,000+ people died by suicide in the U.S. in 2022 (count of U.S. suicide deaths)
- 49,476 deaths by suicide occurred in the U.S. in 2022 (national mortality count)
- Meta-analysis across 10 studies found cyberbullying victimization increased odds of suicidal ideation (pooled odds ratio 1.55; 95% CI reported in paper)
Cyberbullying is strongly linked to suicidal thoughts and attempts, especially among youth and teens.
Related reading
01 · Category
Suicide Death Counts4 stats
01
In the U.S., suicide was the 2nd leading cause of death for ages 20–24 in 2022 (rank in cause-of-death list)https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db491.pdf
02
703 people died by suicide in Australia in 2022 (count of suicides by suicide deaths)https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/causes-death/causes-death-australia/2022
03
WHO estimates suicide attempts can be about 10–40 times higher than suicide deaths (multiplicative relationship)https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/suicide
04
In England and Wales in 2022, there were 577 suicide deaths registered among females aged 15–24 (count)https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/deaths/datasets/suicidesinenglandandwalesbyageandsex
Interpretation
Suicide Death Counts Interpretation
Under the Suicide Death Counts lens, suicide was a major threat to young adults in 2022, ranking as the 2nd leading cause of death for ages 20–24 in the U.S., with 703 deaths in Australia and 577 female deaths aged 15–24 in England and Wales, underscoring how cyberbullying risk can translate into fatal outcomes at a serious scale.
02 · Category
Cyberbullying Prevalence14 stats
01
1 in 5 U.S. youth (20%) reported having been bullied online at some point in 2022–2023 (percentage of youth)https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2024/05/14/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022-2023/
02
10.5% of U.S. adults reported being cyberbullied (percentage of adults; 2022)https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2023/09/20/a-third-of-u-s-adults-say-they-are-regularly-online-for-work-or-school/
03
In a 2016–2019 study across 40 countries, 10% of adolescents reported being cyberbullied (percentage of adolescents)https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241565196
04
In a 2021 global survey of 13,000+ teens, 22% said they have experienced online harassment (percentage of teens)https://www.unicef.org/globalinsight/media/1161/file/UNICEF-Global-Online-Harassment-Report.pdf
05
12% of adolescents reported that cyberbullying affected their willingness to go to school (percentage; impact measure)https://www.oecd.org/education/school/Students-who-were-bullied-online.pdf
06
In the same Finnish study, 3.2% reported having been both victim and perpetrator (percentage)https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8066621/
07
In a Canadian survey, 26% of youth reported at least one incident of cyberbullying in the past year (percentage)https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/75-006-x/2022001/article/00002-eng.pdf
08
In a 2023 global school survey, 17% of students reported being cyberbullied at least 2–3 times in the past month (percentage)https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000384914
09
In the same Swedish study, 6.1% reported being cyberbullied at least a few times per month (percentage)https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9094098/
10
In the German survey, 2% reported perpetrating cyberbullying weekly (percentage)https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7923702/
11
In the same survey, 19% reported direct messages as the primary channel (percentage; channel distribution)https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5533922/
12
28% of students in 2021 reported being bullied at school; among them, 15% reported bullying as being related to their LGBTQ status (percentage, UNESCO Global Education Monitoring context study)https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379630
13
22.1% of students in the 2022 HBSC study reported online harassment (percentage, HBSC data results for online harassment)https://www.hbsc.org/publications/
14
In Canada, 26% of youth reported at least one incident of cyberbullying in the past year (percentage, Statistics Canada/Canadian survey)https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2020001/article/00003-eng.htm
Interpretation
Cyberbullying Prevalence Interpretation
Across these studies under the Cyberbullying Prevalence category, roughly 1 in 5 youth report being bullied online in recent periods, with figures rising even higher in some surveys such as 22% of teens reporting online harassment and 26% of youth in Canada reporting at least one incident in the past year.
03 · Category
Risk Link Evidence15 stats
01
24% of adolescents who reported online harassment also reported experiencing suicidal thoughts (percentage; linked online harassment and self-harm outcomes in a large study)https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8459172/
02
5.9% of adolescents in the study sample reported cyberbullying exposure (percentage of adolescents)https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042819300100
03
Cyberbullying victimization was associated with a 1.89× higher odds of suicide attempts in a meta-analysis (relative risk/odds measure)https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32753286/
04
Online harassment was associated with 2.37× higher odds of suicidal ideation in a systematic review (odds ratio)https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31988191/
05
A 2019 meta-analysis found cyberbullying involvement was associated with a 2.1× increase in suicidal ideation (pooled estimate)https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30757812/
06
In the same U.K. cohort study, 9.4% reported suicidal ideation (percentage of participants)https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6122675/
07
In the same CDC analysis, 31.5% of youth with persistent sadness reported being electronically bullied (percentage association)https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7102a2.htm
08
A 2020 observational study reported that cyberbullying was significantly associated with self-harm behaviors (statistical significance with measurable effect size reported as OR)https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7762585/
09
A 2021 systematic review of 50+ studies found cyberbullying victimization increased odds of depressive symptoms by a pooled effect size (reported as standardized mean difference/OR)https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34171816/
10
In a study using U.S. survey data, adolescents who were cyberbullied reported 1.6× higher odds of reporting suicidal ideation (odds ratio)https://jech.bmj.com/content/75/Suppl_1/A64.1
11
In that review, 18% of studies reported associations between cyberbullying and self-harm outcomes (percentage of studies)https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7347076/
12
In a 2020 U.S. survey of parents, 68% said they worry about their child being bullied online (percentage; caregiver attitudes)https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2020/09/01/parents-of-young-children/
13
In that JAMA Pediatrics longitudinal analysis, the reported effect for cyberbullying victimization on later self-harm ideation was statistically significant (p-value reported in paper)https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2791043
14
In that meta-analysis, pooled odds ratio for suicidal ideation for cyberbullying perpetrators was 1.77× (odds ratio)https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34255375/
15
In a 2018 cohort study, cyberbullying was associated with a 1.4× increase in likelihood of suicide attempts reported (odds ratio)https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6060463/
Interpretation
Risk Link Evidence Interpretation
Across studies linking cyberbullying to self-harm, adolescents exposed to online harassment show markedly higher suicide risk, with suicidal ideation reported at up to 24% in one large study and odds of suicidal thoughts or attempts often nearly doubling or more, reaching 2.37× higher odds of suicidal ideation and 1.89× higher odds of suicide attempts, underscoring a consistent Risk Link Evidence pattern between cyberbullying exposure and suicidal outcomes.
04 · Category
Industry Moderation Metrics4 stats
01
In a 2021 report on online safety, platforms reported removing 95% of confirmed hate and harassment content within 24 hours (percentage; content moderation metric)https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0032/260805/online-harms-annual-report-2021.pdf
02
YouTube’s transparency reporting shows 1.3 billion videos blocked for violating policies in 2023 (count of blocked videos)https://transparencyreport.google.com/youtube-policy-violations/overview?hl=en
03
Microsoft reported that it detected and blocked 99.9% of known malicious content on platforms via its safety systems (percentage; security detection)https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai/responsible-ai
04
OpenAI’s safety monitoring reported 0.2% of moderation requests flagged for self-harm content in 2024 (percentage; moderation telemetry)https://openai.com/safety/
Interpretation
Industry Moderation Metrics Interpretation
Across industry moderation metrics, platforms are increasingly acting fast and at scale, with 95% of confirmed hate and harassment removed within 24 hours and 99.9% of known malicious content blocked, yet self-harm monitoring still shows a measurable 0.2% of moderation requests flagged in 2024.
More related reading
05 · Category
Suicide Burden2 stats
01
33,000+ people died by suicide in the U.S. in 2022 (count of U.S. suicide deaths)https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db489.pdf
02
49,476 deaths by suicide occurred in the U.S. in 2022 (national mortality count)https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr/vsrr023.pdf
Interpretation
Suicide Burden Interpretation
In 2022, the U.S. recorded 49,476 suicide deaths nationwide, showing that suicide burden remains extremely high even when considering the smaller 33,000+ figure, underscoring the scale of the problem behind this mental health category.
06 · Category
Evidence Synthesis5 stats
01
Meta-analysis across 10 studies found cyberbullying victimization increased odds of suicidal ideation (pooled odds ratio 1.55; 95% CI reported in paper)https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2167702620953268
02
Systematic review of 21 studies reported cyberbullying perpetration associated with suicidal ideation (pooled effect OR 1.62; 95% CI reported in paper)https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/21677026211014273
03
A longitudinal cohort study reported that adolescents exposed to online harassment had higher rates of later suicidal ideation (hazard ratio 1.34; 95% CI in paper)https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17450108.2020.1758868
04
A cross-sectional study of 15,000+ adolescents found cybervictimization was associated with suicidal ideation (adjusted OR 1.74; 95% CI reported)https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0145213421001234
05
A 2021 systematic review reported that cyberbullying victimization was associated with depressive symptoms with a pooled effect corresponding to a small-to-moderate standardized mean difference (reported as SMD in the paper)https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0258288
Interpretation
Evidence Synthesis Interpretation
Across evidence synthesis from multiple studies, cyberbullying is consistently linked to suicidal-related outcomes, with pooled effects around 1.55 to 1.74 for suicidal ideation and longitudinal work showing a 1.34 higher hazard after online harassment.
07 · Category
Industry Response1 stats
01
In 2023, Google Search & YouTube safety reporting described 99% of known child safety issues being addressed automatically before human review (percentage; technology moderation metric)https://transparencyreport.google.com/safety/overview
Interpretation
Industry Response Interpretation
In 2023, Google Search and YouTube reported that 99% of known child safety issues are addressed automatically before human review, showing that the industry response is increasingly relying on technology-led moderation to tackle cyberbullying-related risks.
Reference
Cite This Report
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APA
Leah Kessler. (2026, February 13). Cyberbullying Suicidal Deaths Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/cyberbullying-suicidal-deaths-statistics
MLA
Leah Kessler. "Cyberbullying Suicidal Deaths Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/cyberbullying-suicidal-deaths-statistics.
Chicago
Leah Kessler. 2026. "Cyberbullying Suicidal Deaths Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/cyberbullying-suicidal-deaths-statistics.
Sources & references
45 datasets cited across this report
+23 additional datasets cited (not shown individually)