Prior service status

Figure 8 presents data by prior service status in the Australian Defence Force (ADF) for suicide deaths between 1 January 1997 and 31 December 2023 among ex-serving males who have served at least one day since 1 January 1985. For this analysis, ex-serving members who were at any time engaged in permanent service are considered as ‘permanent ex-serving’, even if they were engaged in reserve service before fully separating. By contrast, those who joined and served solely in a reserve capacity are considered as ‘reserve ex-serving’. Due to the small number of suicide deaths among ex-serving females, suicide rates by prior service status over time are not reported.

Figure 8: Rate of suicide for ex-serving males by prior service status, 1997–1999 to 2021–2023

This figure shows line graphs for the rate of suicide per 100,000 population per year among ex-serving males by prior service status over time by 3-year periods from 1997 to 1999, to 2021 to 2023.

This figure shows line graphs for the rate of suicide per 100,000 population per year among ex-serving males by prior service status over time by 3-year periods from 1997 to 1999, to 2021 to 2023.

Notes:

  1. Suicide rates are shown in overlapping 3-year periods to increase the suicide count for each data point and improve the reliability of the data.
  2. Deaths data for the years 2021, 2022, and 2023 contain preliminary data and are subject to change as part of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revisions process. For example, some deaths currently coded as ‘undetermined intent’ could later be determined by a coroner as ‘intentional self-harm’ (or vice-versa).
  3. Confidence Intervals (CIs) of 95% are used to indicate statistical uncertainty in suicide rates. These should be considered when comparing suicide rates between time points.
  4. Suicide rates denoted with a '*' should be interpreted with caution as the number of suicides is fewer than 20. These rates are subject to large fluctuations. ‘*’ notation can be viewed when hovering over a data point.
  5. Comparisons over time should only be made for non-overlapping 3-year periods (for example the 3-year periods 2002–2004 and 2003–2005 should not be compared).

See Data for underlying data (Table D2.11).

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