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Introduction: Suicide rates in Brazil are considered low.In Diamantina, a city with 45,000 inhabitants, popular knowledge suggests that such deaths are not uncommon (eight in 2006, not considering those which occurred in rural areas).However, if we take into account official data, they are very rare.This study aimed to verify how many suicides were reported in the death certificates of inhabitants of Diamantina in a period of ten years and to compare these data with those obtained by the fire and police departments.Fire fighters provide initial care for different injuries, including suicidal behaviours, and police officers are also called in some similar situations.Methods: A manual survey of all the cases of known or suspected suicides from all the death certificates for the 10-year period between January of 1997 and December of 2006 was performed.It is important to say that up to that time not all violent deaths underwent necropsies in the city and that there is a gap, for epidemiological purposes, in filling out death certificates when suicide is suspected.These data were then compared to those compiled by the fire department (for the same period) and the police department (from January 2001 to December 2006).Results and Discussions: Only two suicides were reported in the death certificates, both in 2006.This number was increased by four with data from other institutions (two more in 2006, one in 2004 and one in 2003), but the new number, six, is still far lower than we expected.There are important weaknesses in this study, such as the fact that we have neither necropsy nor psychological autopsies.It remains unfinished, and will later include data from Diamantinas hospitals.Conclusion: Suicides in Diamantina are clearly underreported in death certificates.This may occur because such deaths are still a taboo in our society and may indicate that physicians need orientation about the importance of accurately filling out medical documents.