Request
Please can you release data for suicide rates in the UK for every 6 month period between 2007 until the most recent statistics you have available. Please divide the information into:
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Age (i.e. brackets of 5 years)
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Gender
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County
Response
Thank you for your data for suicide rates in the UK for every 6 month period between 2007 until the most recent statistics.
Unfortunately we are unable to complete your exact request, as suicide numbers broken down by upper-tier local authority (a combination of counties, Unitary Authorities, Metropolitan boroughs and London boroughs which cover England and Wales), gender, 5-year age band and 6 month periods are extremely small. It is only possible to calculate age standardised rates for areas with a total number of deaths greater than 10 in a given time period. Age-specific rates should only be calculated for areas and age bands with more than 3 deaths, which is not the case for the majority of this data.
Similar information based on death registered in each year is available at the NHS Information Centre for health and social care. The NHS indicator portal publishes data based on the number of suicides and the directly age standardised suicide rate for persons of all ages for numerous geography levels.
This data set can be found by using the NHS IC website.
The NHS also have data for suicide number based on age group which is provided at the following intervals; 1+, 1-4, 5-14, 15-34, 35-64, 65-74 and 75+, for 2010 only.
In addition, the NHS also has data showing age-specific mortality rates from suicides for males and females in England and Wales for 2008-2010 combined.
The data contained within this dataset is not consistent with the published National Statistics on suicides produced by ONS. This is due to several factors.
Firstly the NHS indicator portal publishes figures for suicide based on all ages. The National Statistics definition of suicide excludes persons aged under 15 for two reasons:
(1) Verdicts of suicide are not returned for children aged under 10
(2) Deaths of undetermined intent for persons aged under 15 cannot be assumed to be suicide due to the possibility that these deaths were caused by unverifiable abuse, neglect or accidents
Secondly age standardised rates should generally be calculated only for areas with a total number of deaths greater than 10 in a given time period. However, the rates calculated in this data set, for some levels of geography, are based on extremely small numbers and great care is required when interpreting them.
If you require further data based on the National Statistics definition used by ONS please contact the mortality team via email at mortality@ons.gov.uk
