Suicide deaths
This section provides:
- a brief overview of suicide deaths in 2016–17
- a description of trends in suicide deaths from 1999–00 to 2016–17.
Trends in suicide have been the subject of much attention, and the ABS revised its process during the period covered by this report, because of problems resulting in under-identification (see Appendix A and AIHW: Harrison & Henley 2014).
What methods were used?
The criteria given in Section 1.3 were applied, and the records that included the following ICD-10 codes were included in this section:
- the UCoD was Intentional self-harm (X60–X84)
- the MCoDs included codes for Intentional self-harm and for Injury (S00–T75 or T79).
Few deaths were included by the second criterion (about 4 per year, on average). The concepts underlying the abbreviations used in this section are defined in the Glossary.
The title of ICD-10 code block X60–X84 is Intentional self-harm. Deaths coded to this range are commonly referred to as ‘suicide’, a practice followed in this report, although the scope of inclusion of the code block includes ’purposely self-inflicted poisoning or injury’, suicide and attempted suicide. That is, it could include deaths due to intentional self-harm where a fatal outcome was not intended.
Data from the NCIS were used to supplement the data from the ABS. That is particularly important for the period before the start of the improved methods for recording suicide deaths, which were fully implemented for deaths registered in 2008, and have been used since then. The revised methods solved a problem which had resulted in under-reporting of suicide deaths (AIHW: Harrison et al. 2009).
The ABS applied revised methods to deaths registered in 2006, but not to deaths registered before 2006. This report uses a method modelled on the method used by the ABS for deaths registered in 2008, and later to identify intentional self-harm deaths from the NCIS (see Appendix A and AIHW: Henley & Harrison 2015) This method was applied to the entire period for which NCIS data are available (2001 onwards).
Relevant terms and information about the data used in this section are summarised in boxes 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and 10.1.
Box 10.1: External causes of intentional self-harm (suicide)
The Intentional self-harm (X60–X84) section of Chapter XX External causes of morbidity and mortality of ICD-10 includes:
- Intentional self-poisoning by and exposure to nonopioid analgesics, antipyretics and antirheumatics (X60)
- Intentional self-poisoning by and exposure to antiepileptic, sedative-hypnotic, antiparkinsonism and psychotropic drugs, not elsewhere classified (X61)
- Intentional self-poisoning by and exposure to narcotics and psychodysleptics [hallucinogens], not elsewhere classified (X62)
- Intentional self-poisoning by and exposure to other drugs acting on the autonomic nervous system (X63)
- Intentional self-poisoning by and exposure to other and unspecified drugs, medicaments and biological substances (X64)
- Intentional self-poisoning by and exposure to alcohol (X65)
- Intentional self-poisoning by and exposure to organic solvents and halogenated hydrocarbons and their vapours (X66)
- Intentional self-poisoning by and exposure to other gases and vapours (X67)
- Intentional self-poisoning by and exposure to pesticides (X68)
- Intentional self-poisoning by and exposure to other and unspecified chemicals and noxious substances (X69)
- Intentional self-harm by hanging, strangulation and suffocation (X70)
- Intentional self-harm by drowning and submersion (X71)
- Intentional self-harm by handgun discharge (X72)
- Intentional self-harm by rifle, shotgun and larger firearm discharge (X73)
- Intentional self-harm by other and unspecified firearm discharge (X74)
- Intentional self-harm by explosive material (X75)
- Intentional self-harm by smoke, fire and flames (X76)
- Intentional self-harm by steam, hot vapours and hot objects (X77)
- Intentional self-harm by sharp object (X78)
- Intentional self-harm by blunt object (X79)
- Intentional self-harm by jumping from a high place (X80)
- Intentional self-harm by jumping or lying before moving object (X81)
- Intentional self-harm by crashing of motor vehicle (X82)
- Intentional self-harm by other specified means (X83)
- Intentional self-harm by unspecified means (X84).
How many deaths in 2016–17 were due to suicide?
Suicides accounted for 3,039 injury deaths, about 23% of all injury deaths in this period (Table 10.1). There were 2.9 times as many suicide deaths for males as for females.
Table 10.1: Key indicators for suicide deaths, by sex, 2016–17
|
Indicator |
Males | Females | Persons |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Number |
2,253 |
786 |
3,039 |
| Percentage of all injury deaths | 28.4 | 15.1 | 23.1 |
| Crude rate (deaths per 100,000 population) | 18.6 | 6.4 | 12.5 |
| Age-standardised rate (deaths per 100,000 population) | 18.6 | 6.3 | 12.3 |
Source: AIHW NMD.
People aged 25–44 and 45–64 accounted for 70% of all suicide deaths (Table 10.2). By contrast, 40% of injury deaths from all causes were in this age range. Males and females had similar proportions of suicide deaths across age groups.
Table 10.2: Suicide deaths, by age and sex, 2016–17
|
Age group |
Males |
Females | Persons | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | |
|
10–14 |
20 |
0.9 |
6 |
0.8 |
26 |
0.9 |
| 15–24 | 308 | 13.7 | 103 | 13.1 | 411 | 13.5 |
| 25–44 | 977 | 38.9 | 272 | 34.6 | 1,149 | 37.8 |
| 45–64 | 699 | 31.0 | 278 | 35.4 | 977 | 32.1 |
| 65+ | 349 | 15.5 | 127 | 16.2 | 476 | 15.7 |
| Total | 2,253 | 100.0 | 786 | 100.0 | 3,039 | 100.0 |
Source: AIHW NMD.
State or territory of residence
All jurisdictions, except for New South Wales, Victoria, and the Australian Capital Territory, and an age-standardised rate for suicides over the national rate of 12.3 deaths per 100,000 population (Table 10.3). Tasmania recorded the highest rate (18.5 deaths per 100,000), while Victoria recorded the lowest rate (9.5 deaths per 100,000).
It has been shown for an earlier period that timing of processing of intentional self-harm deaths differed between jurisdictions (AIHW: Henley & Harrison 2009). The data for deaths in 2016–17 are subject to review and revision, so final jurisdiction-specific rates might differ from those shown in this section.
Table 10.3: Suicide deaths, by state/territory of usual residence, 2016–17
|
Indicator |
State/territory of usual residence | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NSW | VIC | QLD | WA | SA | TAS | ACT | NT | |
|
Number |
892 |
604 | 750 | 388 | 225 | 97 | 41 | 42 |
|
% |
29.4 |
19.9 | 24.7 | 12.8 | 7.4 | 3.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 |
|
Age-standardised rate |
11.3 |
9.5 | 15.4 | 15.0 | 13.0 | 18.5 | 10.4 | 17.5 |
Source: AIHW NMD.
Remoteness of usual residence
Age-standardised suicide rates rose with increasing remoteness of place usual residence, although rates for Inner regional, Outer regional and Remote areas were similar (Table 10.4). The rate for residents of Remote areas was more than 2.4 times the rate for residents of Major cities.
Table 10.4: Suicide deaths, by remoteness of usual residence, 2016–17
|
Indicators |
Remoteness of usual residence(b) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Major cities | Inner regional | Outer regional | Remote | Very remote | |
|
Number(a) |
1,884 |
694 | 343 | 48 | 50 |
|
% |
62.4 |
23.0 | 11.4 | 1.6 | 1.7 |
|
Age-standardised rate |
10.6 |
16.4 | 16.4 | 16.2 | 25.6 |
Notes:
- Excludes 19 deaths where remoteness was not reported.
- Derived using the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) classification.
Source: AIHW NMD.
Socioeconomic area
The age-standardised rate of suicide rose with socioeconomic disadvantage (Table 10.5). The rate for people living in the lowest socioeconomic areas (14.7 deaths per 100,000 population) was almost 1.5 times the rate for people living in the highest socioeconomic areas (9.9 per 100,000 population).
Table 10.5: Suicide deaths, by socioeconomic area, 2016–17
|
Indicator |
Socioeconomic area | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1—lowest | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5—highest | |
|
Number |
698 |
694 | 645 | 490 | 492 |
|
% |
23.0 |
22.8 | 21.2 | 16.1 | 16.2 |
|
Age-standardised rate |
14.7 |
14.0 | 13.2 | 9.9 | 9.9 |
Note: Excludes 20 deaths where socioeconomic area was not reported.
Source: AIHW NMD.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
The age-standardised suicide rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was 2.3 times as high as the rate for non-Indigenous Australians (Table 10.6).
Table 10.6: Key indicators for suicide deaths, by Indigenous status and sex, 2016–17
|
Indicator |
Indigenous |
Non-Indigenous | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Males | Females | Persons | Males | Females | Persons | |
| Number |
133 |
44 | 177 | 1,539 | 525 | 2,064 |
| Age-standardised rate (deaths per 100,000 population) |
42.5 |
13 | 27.6 | 18.5 | 6.1 | 12.2 |
|
Rate ratio(a) |
2.3 |
2.1 | 2.3 | . . | . . | . . |
| Rate difference(b) |
24.0 |
6.9 | 15.4 | . . | . . | . . |
Notes:
- Rate ratios are standardised rates for Indigenous males, females, and persons, divided by standardised rates for non-Indigenous males, females, and persons.
- Rate differences are standardised rates for Indigenous males, females, and persons, minus standardised rates for non-Indigenous males, females, and persons.
Includes data for New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, and the Northern Territory (see Box 1.2).
Source: AIHW NMD.
The proportions of suicides in each age group differed markedly between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians (Table 10.7).
For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, 82% of suicides occurred among those aged 15–44, compared with 48% for non-Indigenous Australians. Conversely, there were only 5 (2.7%) suicide deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 65 and over, whereas 17% (347) of suicide deaths for non-Indigenous Australians were among people in this age group.
Table 10.7: Suicide deaths, by Indigenous status, age and sex, 2016–17
| Indigenous | Non-Indigenous | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | Number | % | |
| Males | ||||
| 10-14 |
2 |
1.5 | 14 | 0.9 |
| 15-24 | 45 | 33.8 | 187 | 12.2 |
|
25–44 |
65 | 48.9 | 576 | 37.4 |
| 45–64 |
17 |
12.8 | 507 | 32.9 |
|
65+ |
4 | 3.0 | 255 | 16.6 |
|
Total |
133 | 100.0 | 1,539 | 100.0 |
| Females | ||||
|
10–14 |
0 |
0.0 |
6 |
1.1 |
| 15–24 | 21 | 47.7 | 53 | 10.1 |
| 25–44 | 15 | 34.1 | 175 | 33.3 |
| 45–64 | 7 | 15.9 | 199 | 37.9 |
| 65+ | 1 | 2.3 | 92 | 17.5 |
| Total | 44 | 100.0 | 525 | 100.0 |
Note: Includes data for New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, and the Northern Territory (see Box 1.2).
Source: AIHW NMD.