Male suicides at highest rate in over a decade

By The Press Association19th February 2015News EnglandMental Health, News England, Suicide

The number of people killing themselves in the UK rose in 2013, official figures revealed today, as male suicides hit their highest rate in more than a decade.

A total of 6,233 suicides were recorded among people aged 15 and over, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said, up 252 – or 4% – on the previous year.

The UK suicide rate was 11.9 deaths per 100,000 population in 2013, while the male suicide level was more than three times higher than for females, with 19 male deaths per 100,000 – the highest since 2001.

Of the total number of suicides in the UK, 78% were male and 22% were female, the ONS said. Some 4,858 male suicides were recorded in 2013, compared to 1,375 female suicides.

The highest UK suicide rate was among men aged 45 to 59, with 25.1 deaths per 100,000 – the highest for that age group since 1981 and the first time that age group has recorded the highest rate.

North East England had the highest suicide rate among the English regions, with 13.8 deaths per 100,000 population, while London had the lowest at 7.9 per 100,000.

Women aged 45 to 59 had the highest female suicide rate with seven deaths per 100,000 population. The female suicide rate across the UK was 5.1 deaths per 100,000.

In England, the suicide rate in 2013 was 10.7 deaths per 100,000 (4,722 deaths), compared with 15.9 in Wales (393 deaths).

The male suicide rate in the UK has “increased significantly” since 2007, the ONS said, while female rates have stayed “relatively constant” and been “consistently lower” than in men.

In 1981, 63% of UK suicides were male compared with 37% who were female.

The UK suicide rate of 11.9 deaths per 100,000 population was last seen in 2004, it added.

Suicide remains the leading cause of death in England and Wales for men aged 20 to 34, accounting for 24% of all deaths in 2013, and for men aged 35 to 49 years, where it accounts for 13% of all deaths.

The suicide rate among men aged 60 to 74 also “rose significantly” from its 2012 level to 14.5 deaths per 100,000 population in 2013. There were 672 suicides among the age group in 2013, up from 562 in 2012 when the suicide rate was 12.3 per 100,000.

In contrast, men aged 15 to 29 were the only age group to record a decrease in the rate of suicides in 2013 to 12.5 deaths per 100,000, compared to 13.6 in 2012.

Suicide is also the leading cause of death among women aged 20 to 34 in England and Wales, accounting for 12% of all deaths, the ONS said.

In Wales, there were 393 suicides in people aged 15 and over in 2013 – an increase of 59 deaths on the previous year. The suicide rate in Wales of 15.6 deaths per 100,000 population is the highest rate seen since 1982, the ONS said.

Between 2012 and 2013, the number of male suicides in Wales rose by 23% from 257 to 317, while the number of female suicides dropped from 77 to 76.

The suicide rate among men in Wales has “increased significantly”, from 18.8 in 2010 to 26.1 in 2013, the highest since 1981 and “significantly higher” than the rate in England, the ONS said.