Objective: To analyse suicide rates by sex, age, and geographic region in Brazil from 1997 to 2008.Methods: Mortality and suicide data were obtained from database of the DATASUS (http://wwww.datasus.gov.br).Unadjusted suicide rates for the 5 major Brazilian regions were based on resident population data from IBGE (http://www.ibge.gov.br) and comes from the censuses in the years when they were performed and the population counts in the other years.The definition of suicide used the ICD-10 (X60-X84).Stratified analyses by gender and age bracket (under 19 years of age, 20-59 years, and 60 years and older) were also performed.Values corresponding to "age unknown" were excluded from calculation of the suicide rates according to age brackets.The levels of suicide mortality rates were classified according to the Diekstra and Gulbinat guideline.Results: The mean suicide rate in Brazil from 1997 to 2008 was 4.4/100000 inhabitants, varying between 7.2/100000 in men and 1.8/100000 in women.Among males, the suicide rate increased by 13.4% (from 6.9 in 1997 to 7.9 in 2008), whereas it increased by 15.1% among females (from 1.8 in 1997 to 2.0 in 2008).The rates increased with age in both genders, reaching the highest levels in the elderly (7.4/100000 inhabitants).The suicide rates for the South and Southeast regions decreasing trends in the period (-1.5% and -3.1%) while the North, Northeast and Central-West regions showed increasing suicide rates (54.7%, 74.3% and 12.7%).The South demonstrated the highest mean suicide rate in the period (8.2/100000 inhabitants) followed by the Central-West (5.9) and the Southeast (4.0).The rates increased with age in all regions, reaching the highest levels in the elderly from the South (16.3/100000 inhabitants), though it decreased by 22.1% in the period.Meanwhile, in the Northeast showed the lowest mean suicide rate among children and adolescents (0.8), there was an increase by 103.4% in the period and in absolute numbers the region demonstrates the highest number of suicides in the population under 19 years.In general, for all age groups and for both genders, the highest rates were in the South and Central-West regions.Discussion: Compared to the worldwide suicide rates, Brazil still demonstrates one of the lowest suicide rates (less than 5/100000 inhabitants).However, the remarkable increase in mortality due to suicide in the last decade mainly occurring in the less developed regions of the country indicates that major changes are still coming.