The rise in suicide
by Laura Dodsworth, The Free Mind:
Suicide rates are now the highest they have been in England for 25 years.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has released the latest report of quarterly suicide death registrations in England for Quarter 4 (October to December) of 2023. Unfortunately, it shows a 6% rise, which is the highest national rate of suicides since 1999. There were 1,439 suicides registered in Quarter 4, equivalent to 11.4 suicide deaths per 100,000 people. Overall there were 5,579 suicides registered in England, which is significantly higher than 2021 and 2020.
It’s difficult to attribute causes to individual suicides, as well as trends. While it is important to to be responsible and circumspect when speculating, this notable and recent upshift in suicide deaths should be analysed and monitored.
The ONS figures need to be interpreted with some caution because there is a delay in coronial inquests, meaning that only 39.3% of the deaths registered in 2023 had a date of death in the same year, and some of the deaths occurred in 2022 and 2021. Crucially, this means that we should be cautious about making conclusions for 2023 at the moment as there will still be a large number of suicides that occurred in 2023 which have not yet been registered.
So what might have caused the trend?
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