Background: Female suicide rate is slightly higher than male in China, especially in rural areas.Understanding the characteristics of female suicide completers is important for suicide prevention among women, but few studies have been conducted about it.Methods: A survey instrument was independently administered to family members and close associates of 926 suicide cases randomly selected from 23 geographically representative sites in China.Among the suicide cases, 458 were female.Results: The mean age of the 458 female suicide victims was (43.2+19.4) years old.Among them, 79.8% lived in rural village, 10.0% was never married, 42.1% died at the time of discovery, 30.2% had prior attempts, 18.1% had blood relatives with suicidal behaviour, 37.8% had other relatives or acquaintances with suicidal behaviours, and 21.7% had a pre-school age child in home.The most common suicide methods are listed here: 51.5% took pesticides to kill themselves, 10.9% took rat poisons, 5.1% medications, 5.5% poisoned with other chemicals or gases, 16.8% committing suicide using ropes, knifes, guns, or other tools, 4.6% drowned, 4.1% jumped, and 1.5% used other methods.The five most frequent negative life events included unhappy marriage (36.0%), serious illness or injury (34.0%), financial problems (31.4%), changed routines (28.7%), and lost face or being stigmatized (27.6%).The prevalence of mental disorders was 58.3%: 36.5% had mood disorders, 14.0% psychotic disorders, but 77.5% had never sought help for their mental problems before committing suicide.Compared to the cases without mental disorders, those with mental disorders were older, less likely to live in villages, less likely to take poisons, more likely to have a prior suicide attempt, more likely to write a will, and experienced higher chronic stress and lower acute stress.There were no significant difference in schooling years, per capita income in household, being currently married and family history of suicidal behaviour between the two groups.Conclusion: The characteristics of females who die by suicide in China are quite unique in China.A large proportion of them do not meet the diagnostic criteria of mental disorders at the time of committing suicide.Given that both of mental disorders and suicide are closely related to negative life events, it is necessary to test the acceptability and effectiveness of improving problem-solving skills of the females in suicide prevention in China.