More than half of all Australian adults know someone who has died by suicide, with eight people a day taking their own life.

The Suicide Prevention Australia/YouGov survey, conducted in August and released today in the lead-up to World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10, has exposed the horrific reach of suicide.

Suicide Prevention Australia CEO Nieves Murray said the survey showed more than 10 million Australian adults are estimated to know someone who has died by suicide — while an alarming one in two young people are impacted by suicide in some form by the time they turn 25.

“Half the nation is impacted by death by suicide. What’s even more concerning is that by the time our young people turn 25 — they’ve got a 50 per cent chance of knowing someone who has taken their own life,” she said.

media_camera The sister and best friend (from left Brooke Gabor and Elise Weller) of Richelle Turpin, who took her own life, are still mourning her loss. Picture: Craig Greenhill

Other findings include half of all Australians think young people aged 18 to 25 are at the biggest risk of suicide in the next decade, followed closely by Australians aged 25 to 55.

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Drugs and alcohol, cost of living, personal debt and social isolation were identified as the main risk factors.

“The issue is complex, it is not just about mental ill health or just people who have a diagnosis of depression that have suicidal crisis,” she said.

“This is impacting on people who do not have any other issue other than, for example, social issues such as a relationship or family breakdown, employment or financial insecurities, so they are not issues about mental wellbeing, they are issues around daily life and this is the clear message we are getting through this data.”

media_camera Richelle Turpin took her own life in 2014 when she was just 26 years old.

The research also indicated 71 per cent of Australians want all government decisions to consider the risk of suicide and have proactive plans in place.

Preventive programs needed to be broadened beyond mental health, Ms Murray said.

“These are psychosocial risks, like relationships and employment,” she said.

“If we look at the trends over the last 10 years and what has been happening to the fabric of families and issues around relationship breakdown, and project that forward over the next 10 years, what does that tell us and what can we do in a proactive way to put a safety net around people who might be vulnerable, so we are preventive rather than reactive,” she said.

Despite prevention strategies, suicide deaths continue to rise.

In 2017, there was a total of 3128 deaths by suicide (12.7 per 100,000), up from 2866 deaths in 2016 (11.8 per 100,000).

Brooke Gabor, 27, lost her sister Richelle Turpin to suicide in 2014. Richelle was only 26 when she died but she had also been devastated by suicide. Her partner and father of their toddler son took his life five years prior.

“I think people still believe that suicide is a choice people wake up to do one day, or that it is selfish, but the reality is they think they are relieving other people of the burden they think they are,” she said.

“Richelle struggled with depression for years. But you don’t chose to suffer from mental illness.”