Summary
This is Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s (AIHW) seventh annual report on suicide among permanent, reserve, and ex-serving Australian Defence Force (ADF) members. This report includes those with at least one day of service from 1985 to 2022, with deaths by suicide monitored from 1997 to 2022. Compared to the previous report, this study has expanded the cohort and extended the monitoring period to include the latest year of available data. The general patterns, including rates of suicide and comparisons with the Australian population, are similar to previous AIHW reports. For a summary of the suicide rates among ex-serving ADF members by sex and service-related characteristics, see Figure 1.
Further information on the veteran population scope and expanded monitoring period can be found in Technical notes.
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Suicide is the leading cause of death for younger ex-serving members. This is similar to younger Australians but accounts for a higher proportion of all deaths
For both ex-serving and Australian males under 30, suicide is the leading cause of death accounting for 42% and 29% of deaths respectively. This is similar for ex-serving and Australian females under 30 where suicide accounts for 44% and 22% of deaths respectively.
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Permanent and reserve males have a lower risk of suicide
Permanent and reserve males are about half as likely to die by suicide as Australian males (47% and 45% lower respectively).
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Ex-serving males have an increased risk of suicide compared to Australian males
The suicide rate for ex-serving males is 31.0 per 100,000 population per year. Compared to Australian males, ex-serving males are 26% more likely to die by suicide. However, rates vary within the subpopulations of male ex-serving ADF members.
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Ex-serving females have an increased risk of suicide compared to Australian females
The suicide rate for ex-serving females is 14.9 per 100,000 population per year. Compared to Australian females, ex-serving females are 100% (or 2.00 times) more likely to die by suicide. However, rates vary within the subpopulations of female ex-serving ADF members.
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The suicide rate for ex-serving males has been lower in recent years
The suicide rate for ex-serving males has been declining since 2014–2016 to 2020–2022 (33.3 to 27.6 deaths per 100,000 population per year), noting that the period 2020–2022 includes preliminary deaths data that is subject to change.
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Males who separate voluntarily have similar rates of suicide to the Australian population
The suicide rate of ex-serving males who separated voluntarily is similar to the general Australian population as measured by the age-adjusted suicide rate.
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Males who separate for involuntary medical reasons have an increased risk of suicide
The suicide rate for ex-serving males who separate for involuntary medical reasons is almost 3 times the rate of those who separate voluntarily (62.7 and 22.0 per 100,000 population per year respectively).
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Males who separate for the involuntary reason ‘Retention not in service interest’ have an increased risk of suicide
The suicide rate for ex-serving males who separate for the involuntary reason ‘Retention not in service interest’ is 2.4 times the rate of those who separate voluntarily (52.9 and 22.0 per 100,00 population per year respectively).
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Younger ex-serving age groups have an increased risk of suicide
Ex-serving males under 50 were more likely to die by suicide than those aged 50 years and over (36.7 and 20.3 per 100,000 population per year respectively).
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Ex-serving members with a greater length of service have a lower rate of suicide compared to those with a shorter length of service
The suicide rate of ex-serving males who have served for 20 or more years is 15.5 suicides per 100,000 population per year. This is lower compared to those who have served for <1 year, 1 to <5, 5 to <10 or 10 to <20 years.
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Those who separate as officers have lower rates of suicide
The suicide rate for ex-serving males who separated as officers is about half the rate of those who separated at other ranks (17.1 and 32.9 per 100,000 population per year respectively).
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Ex-serving males who served at least one day in the permanent forces had higher rates of suicide compared to those who served solely in the reserve forces
The suicide rate for ex-serving males who served at least one day in the permanent forces had higher rates of suicide compared to those who served solely in the reserve forces (34.6 and 25.4 per 100,000 population per year respectively).
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Basic training completion status, year of hire, and year of separation were not found to be significantly associated with death by suicide
When controlling for all other available factors, basic training completion status, year of hire, and year or separation did not have a statistically significant association with death by suicide.
Figure 1: Summary of ex-serving ADF member suicide rates by service-related characteristics, 1997–2022
This horizontal bar graph shows the suicide rate for males per 100,000 population per year between 1997 and 20222 by each service characteristic. It also shows the proportion of the ex-serving male population.
Notes:
- Due to a change in the way the reasons for separating the ADF was recorded during 2002, analysis by reason for separation is presented only for ADF members who left from 1 January 2003 onwards. These members comprise 43% of the total ex-serving members with at least one day of service since 1 January 1985.
- Due to small number of suicide deaths, females who separated for involuntary Retention not in service interest were aggregated with the other involuntary separation group for suicide rate analysis.
* Suicide rates in this Figure denoted with a '*' should be interpreted with caution as the number of suicides is fewer than 20. These rates are subject to large fluctuations.
Source: AIHW analysis of linked Defence historical personnel data–PMKeyS–NDI data 1985–2022; NMD 1985–2022.
Help or support
If you need help or support, please contact:
- Open Arms – Veterans and Families Counselling – Phone: 1800 011 046
- Open Arms Suicide Intervention
- Defence All-hours Support Line (ASL) – Phone: 1800 628 036
- Defence Member and Family Helpline – Phone: 1800 624 608
- Defence Chaplaincy Support
- ADF Mental Health Services
- Lifeline – Phone: 13 11 14
- Suicide Call Back Service – Phone: 1300 659 467
- Beyond Blue Support Service – Phone: 1300 22 4636
For information on support provided by DVA, see: