Monthly suicide registers

Key findings

New South Wales

• In 2025, there were 926 suspected or confirmed suicide deaths, compared with 943 in 2024, 919 in 2023 and 937 in 2022.
• In the first 2 months of 2026, there were 150 suspected suicide deaths, compared with 155 in the same period in 2025, 2024 and 2023 and 149 in 2022 (NSW Health 2026b).

Victoria

• In 2025, there were 786 suspected or confirmed deaths from suicide, compared with 778 in 2024, 796 in 2023 and 763 in 2022.
• In the first 3 months of 2026, there were 199 suspected suicide deaths, compared with 213 in the same period in 2025, 231 in 2024 189 in 2023 and 170 in 2022 (CCOV 2026c). 

Queensland

• In 2025, there were 781 suspected suicide deaths recorded, compared with 769 in 2024, 782 in 2023, 795 in 2022 and 816 in 2021.
• In the first 2 months of 2026, there were 155 suspected suicide deaths, compared with 112 in the same period in 2025, 138 in 2024 137 in 2023 and 135 in 2022 (QMHC 2026b).

About the state and territory suicide registers

In Australia, the coroners court in each state and territory is responsible for investigating suspected deaths by suicide. Most Australian jurisdictions have established suicide registers to record the information provided to coroners at the time a suspected suicide death is referred for investigation. These surveillance systems provide close to real-time data and are valuable for informing responses, research, and policy in suicide prevention locally, and across national and international levels.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, suicide registers existed in Queensland (established in 1990), Victoria (2012) and Tasmania (2017). New South Wales established a suicide register in October 2020. Through the Suicide and Self-harm Monitoring Project, the AIHW has worked with governments in the Australian Capital Territory, South Australia, and the Northern Territory to establish suicide registers in these jurisdictions. These registers became operational in 2021, 2022 and 2023, respectively. More information on suicide registers can be found in Data development activities.

Several jurisdictions have published reports on their suicide register data, including:

• New South Wales (monthly reports up to February 2026)
• Victoria (monthly reports up to March 2026)
• Queensland (monthly reports up to February 2026)

It is important to note that suicide is not influenced or caused by one factor – but results from a complex interaction between multiple risk factors (Leske et al. 2022).

Data on suspected deaths by suicide are based on initial police reports and other information available at the time of referral to the coroner (Leske et al. 2022; NSW Health 2024). Therefore, they may be subject to change throughout the coronial investigation and may differ from the final, confirmed suicide data, which are based on coronial determinations. However, the differences are generally small. For example, in the case of the Victorian Suicide Register (VSR):

Data from state and territory suicide registers are generally consistent with causes of death data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) but they are not the same. This is due to differences in case definitions and coding practices- external site opens in new window between the suicide registers and the ABS (Leske et al. 2023). For instance, over the 15 years from 2006 to 2020, the ABS reported 297 fewer suicide deaths by year of occurrence (3% less) in Queensland, compared with the Queensland Suicide Register and interim Queensland Suicide Register (Leske et al. 2023). Each data source has complementary strengths: suicide registers provide more timely data, while ABS data enable cross-jurisdictional comparisons (Leske et al. 2023).

Suicide registers also differ from each other in their processes and counting rules for identifying suspected suicide deaths. Therefore, caution is needed if comparing data from one register with those from another.

More information on suicide register data custodians with published data can be found in Data sources.

New South Wales

The New South Wales Suicide Monitoring System (NSW SuMS) was established in October 2020. The NSW SuMS is a collaboration between NSW Health, the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ), the State Coroner and NSW Police. NSW Health publishes monthly reports on suspected and confirmed deaths by suicide occurring in New South Wales. Data on suspected deaths by suicide are an estimate, and numbers for the same period may differ slightly between reports as the coroners' determinations into the deaths are finalised. Caution is advised against drawing any conclusions about suicide trends in NSW based on short-term changes.

The latest NSW SuMS report for February 2026 shows that (NSW Health 2026b):

• A total of 926 suspected or confirmed suicide deaths was recorded for the full year in 2025, compared with 943 suspected or confirmed suicide deaths in 2024, 919 in 2023, and 937 in 2022.
• In the first 2 months of 2026, there were 150 suspected suicide deaths, compared with 155 in the same period in 2025, 2024 and 2023, and 149 in 2022.

As can be seen in the figure below, the number (frequency) of suspected or confirmed suicide deaths per month varies considerably from month to month. The 'Cumulative Frequency' section displays the year-to-date numbers of suicide deaths.

The NSW SuMS also reports on suicide deaths by gender, age group and residential location. In 2025 (NSW Health 2026b):

• For males, there were 688 suspected or confirmed suicide deaths reported, compared with 717 in 2024, 721 in 2023 and 727 in 2022.
• Men aged 35 to 44 years recorded the highest number of suicide deaths in 2025 (128, 19% of all male suicide deaths).
• Among females, there were 234 suspected or confirmed suicide deaths, compared with 224 in 2024, 198 in 2023 and 209 in 2022. 
• Women aged 45 to 54 years had the highest number of suicide deaths (42, 18% of all female suicide deaths).
• Around three quarters (74%) of suspected or confirmed suicide deaths in NSW were among males.
• More than half (495, 53%) of suspected or confirmed suicide deaths occurred among residents of Greater Sydney, with the remainder comprising residents of the rest of NSW and a small number of interstate/overseas residents.

Year-to-date data to 28 February 2026 from the NSW SuMS show (NSW Health 2026b):

• Males recorded 111 suspected deaths by suicide, compared with 121 for the same period in 2025, 125 in 2024, 122 in 2023 and 118 in 2022.
• Females recorded 39 suspected deaths by suicide, compared with 34 for the same period in 2025, 29 in 2024, 33 in 2023 and 31 in 2022.

Victoria

Victorian Suicide Register data

The Coroners Court of Victoria (CCOV) established the Victorian Suicide Register (VSR) in 2012 and publishes monthly data reports on suspected and confirmed deaths by suicide. VSR data are regularly reviewed, where deaths may be added or removed from the register as coronial investigations progress and are finalised. VSR data may therefore change over time.

The latest Monthly Suicide Data Report shows (CCOV 2026c):

• There was a total of 786 suspected or confirmed suicide deaths in 2025, compared with 778 in 2024, 796 in 2023 and 763 in 2022. 
• In the first 3 months of 2026, there were 199 suspected suicide deaths, compared with 213 in the same period in 2025, 231 in 2024 189 in 2023, and 170 in 2022.

As illustrated below, the monthly frequency data show considerable variation which, according to CCOV, usually results from random factors rather than underlying systemic issues or emerging clusters (CCOV 2022). The data therefore should be interpreted cautiously, with great care taken in drawing conclusions about any apparent short-term increase or decrease that is observed.

There was an increase in suspected and confirmed suicide deaths beginning in August 2022. From January 2016 to July 2022, the average number of suspected or confirmed suicide deaths was 57 per month. However, from August 2022 to March 2026, the monthly average increased to 66.

CCOV also reports on suicide deaths in Victoria by age group and sex, and incident location (CCOV 2026a). In 2025:

• There were 564 suspected or confirmed suicide deaths among males, compared with 561 in 2024, 570 in 2023, 557 in 2022, and 498 in 2021.
• Men aged 35 to 44 recorded the highest number of suicide deaths (124), accounting for 22% of all male suicide deaths in Victoria.
• Among females, there were 218 suspected or confirmed suicide deaths, compared with 215 in 2024, 226 in 2023, 208 in 2022 and 166 in 2021.
• Like males, the highest number of suicide deaths occurred among women aged 35 to 44 (42), accounting for 19% of all female suicide deaths.
• Males made up 72% of suspected or confirmed suicide deaths.
• Consistent with previous years, the proportion of suicide deaths remained higher in Metropolitan Melbourne (68%) compared with Regional Victoria (32%).

Detailed breakdowns of full-year frequencies of suspected and confirmed suicide deaths in Victoria by sex and age group, and incident location can be viewed on the visualisation below.

Year-to-date data to 31 March 2026 from the VSR show (CCOV 2026c):

• Males recorded 151 suspected deaths by suicide, compared with 147 for the same period in 2025, 169 in 2024, 137 in 2023 and 114 in 2022.
• Females recorded 48 suspected deaths by suicide, compared with 66 for the same period in 2025, 62 in 2024, 52 in 2023 and 56 in 2022.

First Nations people

CCOV publishes data on suspected suicide deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people in Victoria. CCOV recorded 21 suspected First Nations suicide deaths in 2025 (25 in 2024, 22 in 2023, 18 in 2022 and 35 in 2021). In 2025, 17 were male (17 in 2024, 18 in 2023, 12 in 2022 and 26 in 2021) and 4 were female (8 in 2024, 4 in 2023, 6 in 2022 and 9 in 2021) (CCOV 2026b).

Between 2021 and 2025, First Nations people comprised on average 3.2% suicide deaths in Victoria (CCOV 2026b), despite making up 1.2% of Victoria’s population in 2021 (ABS 2023). The average annual crude suicide death rate was about 2.7 times as high among First Nations people than non-Indigenous people (29.5 vs 10.8 per 100,000) (CCOV 2026b).

First Nations suicide deaths tend to occur at younger ages, with 55.4% occurring among people under 35, compared with 29.4% for non-Indigenous Australians (CCOV 2026b).

Gambling

Data from the VSR were used in a 2023 study investigating the prevalence and characteristics of gambling-related suicides. The findings show that in Victoria between 2009 and 2016 (Rintoul et al 2023):

• 4.2% of suicides were linked to gambling, with 184 cases directly involving gambling and 17 involving individuals affected by others' gambling.
• The majority (83%) of gambling related suicides were among males.
• Gambling-related suicides were more likely to occur among those most disadvantaged with half of all gambling-related suicides occurring in the most socioeconomically disadvantaged areas (quintiles 1 and 2) as per the Victorian Index of Relative Socioeconomic Disadvantage, despite only 39.3% of the overall Victorian population residing in these areas.

Since gambling issues are often concealed and not routinely investigated by coroners, the actual number of gambling-related suicides may be higher than reported (Rintoul et al 2023).

Family violence

In 2024, CCOV published a report on the experience of family violence among people who died by suicide in Victoria from 2009 to 2016. The report found that (CCOV 2024b):

• 24.5% (1,172 of 4,790 cases) of individuals, who died of suicide, had experienced family violence.
• 65.1% of males, who had experienced family violence, were categorised as perpetrators only.
• 62.1% of females, who had experienced family violence, were classified as victims only. 
• Among the 131 males who were both victims and perpetrators of family violence:
  • 70.2% experienced violence from family members.
  • 80.9% perpetrated violence against partners.

VSR noted that anecdotal evidence suggests that some males in this group experienced family violence as children and later perpetrated it as adults, highlighting the potential intergenerational transmission of family violence and its link to suicidality (CCOV 2024b). 

Queensland

Queensland uses two systems to monitor suicide deaths: the Queensland Suicide Register (QSR), which tracks long-term trends in confirmed suicides since 1990, and the interim Queensland Suicide Register (iQSR), established in 2011 to provide real-time data on suspected suicide deaths. More information on suicide register data sources can be found in Data sources.

Interim Queensland Suicide Register Data

The latest iQSR Monthly Suicide Data Report for February 2026 shows that (QMHC 2026b):

• There were 781 suspected suicide deaths in 2025, compared with 769 in 2024, 782 in 2023, 795 in 2022 and 816 in 2021.
• In the first 2 months of 2026, there were 155 suspected suicide deaths, compared with 112 in the same period in 2025, 138 in 2024 137 in 2023, and 135 in 2022.

In the visualisation below:

• The number (frequency) of suspected suicide deaths per month varies considerably from month to month. The number of suspected male suicide deaths appears to be higher in the summer months compared to the winter months. For females this pattern is less evident (see figure Males and Females, 2016–2023).
• For persons, males and females, suspected suicide deaths in 2016 were lower than in all other years. 

The iQSR reports on suspected suicide deaths by age group, sex and residential location. In 2025 (QMHC 2026a):

• There were 580 suspected or confirmed suicide deaths reported for males, compared with 602 in 2024, 583 in 2023, 611 in 2022, 612 in 2021.
• Men aged 45 to 54 recorded the highest number of suicide deaths (111, 19% of all male suicide deaths)
• For females, there were 201 suspected or confirmed suicide deaths in 2025, compared with 167 in 2024, 199 in 2023, 184 in 2022 and 204 in 2021. 
• Among females, those aged 25 to 34 recorded the highest number of suicide deaths (47, 23% of all female suicide deaths).
• Around three-quarters (74%) of suspected or confirmed suicide deaths in Qld in 2025 were among males (down from 78% in 2024).
• Over half (52%) of suspected or confirmed suicide deaths were among people who resided in Major Cities, 40% from Inner Regional and Outer Regional areas, and 3% from remote or very remote areas (4% unknown). 

Year-to-date data to 28 February 2026 from the  iQSR show (QMHC 2026b):

• Males recorded 116 suspected deaths by suicide, compared with 85 for the same period in 2025, 113 in 2024, 100 in 2023 and 106 in 2022.
• Females recorded 39 suspected deaths by suicide, compared with 27 for the same period in 2025, 25 in 2024, 37 in 2023 and 29 in 2022.