The findings come as students at S.K.H. Leung Kwai Yee Secondary School mourn the death of Cheung Ming-kwan, the 12-year-old pupil who threw herself out of her apartment in Kwun Tong earlier this month.

Centre for Suicide Research director Paul Yip Siu-fai announced the latest findings yesterday to mark World Suicide Prevention Day. He said the most worrying trend is the increase in young adult suicide.

While Hong Kong's total suicide rate dropped 6.9 percent in 2006, the rate among young adults increased by 13.2 percent. In total 72 young adults killed themselves in that year and the rate of suicide for the group was 7.9 for every 100,000.

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In addition a poll by the center and the Family Planning Association found 24.5 percent of Hong Kong secondary students had thought of killing themselves.

The Samaritans director, Liz Chamberlain, attributed the increase in young adults to overcrowding, pressure from parents, breakdown of the family system and unrecognized mental illness.

She said that without time for play, children fail to develop social skills.

The Samaritans strive to teach children to listen and express their emotions better. "That way they develop a support group they can reach out to for help during hard times," Chamberlain said.

Yip agreed that Hong Kong needs to do a better job fostering community care.

"If people need help, often no one is there," he said. "In such a transitional and high-stress society, the community needs to do a better job reconnecting."

He also feared the recent economic downturn will exacerbate an already worsening situation for the unemployed in Hong Kong. Also, many unemployed had failed to benefit from the economic success of the past five years.

Unemployed women were shown to be at especially high risk. In 2006 as a group they were 21 times as likely to commit suicide compared with the overall population. In 2002 they were only six times as likely, a more than tripling of the suicide risk among the group.

Unemployed men were 10.4 times as likely to commit suicide as the overall population.

At 13.4 per 100,000, Hong Kong's suicide rate is much lower than Taiwan's which is about 19 per 100,000 and Japan's 25 per 100,000.

But as Chamberlain points out, "even one suicide is a serious concern."