Australia’s suicide rate has dropped, but males are still four times more likely than females to kill themselves, according to a new report released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).
There were 2,282 suicides in 2010-11 compared to the peak of more than 2,600 deaths in 1997-98.
However, the rates of suicide per 100,000 population remained relatively static according to AIHW spokesperson Professor James Harrison.
“Suicide death rates for males, adjusted for age, have fluctuated at around 20 deaths per 100,000 people between 1921 and 2010,” Professor Harrison said.
During most of the same period, the suicide rate among females was about five deaths per 100,000 people per year.
By 2010, the rates per 100,000 fell below 20 for males and below five for females.
Suicide rates among Indigenous people were twice as high as for non-Indigenous Australians.
The report also looked at generational differences in suicide.
“For females, we haven’t seen any marked variation among different generations,” Professor Harrison said.
“Suicide rates at about 20 years of age were higher for men born from the mid-1940s to the mid-1970s than for men born earlier or later in the 20th century,” he said.
Females had a much higher rate of hospitalisation as a result of self-harm, particularly in teenage age groups since 1999.
Girls aged 15 to 19 had the highest rate of hospitalised self-harm with 430 admitted to hospital per 100,000, while the rate for males the same age was 144 per 100,000.
Rates of self-harm among Indigenous Australians were two-and-a-half times higher for males and twice as high for females.
If you need immediate assistance or support, please contact:
- Lifeline 13 11 14
- Beyond Blue 1300 224 636
- Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467
- Mensline 1300 78 99 78