All deaths attributable to external causes are referred to the Coroner’s Court. As such, these deaths are registered after the standard three-month time period, and often much later than the 22 month deadline for CSO annual publications. The impact of late registrations on suicide statistics is growing as can be seen from the headline table in this publication.
In 2020, there were 504 deaths from suicide in Ireland, an increase from the 500 such deaths which occurred in 2015.
Over 80% of deaths due to suicide occurring in 2012 were males, while this had fallen to 72.6% in 2020.
Over the last nine years (2012-2020), 2018 recorded the largest number of female deaths due to suicide (141).
Of the 504 deaths due to suicide in 2020, the highest proportion was of those aged from 40 to 44 years at 12.3%.
In 2020, both males and females aged 50 to 54 years have the joint highest crude suicide rate per 100,000 with 25.7 for males and 11.2 for females.
Nearly one in every ten deaths due to suicide in 2020 were to those aged 65 and older, which has remained broadly similar over the years.
In 2020, just over two out of every ten deaths due to suicide occurred in the Dublin region.
Visit www.yourmentalhealth.ie for information on how to mind your mental health, support others, or to find a support service in your area. You can also call the HSE Your Mental Health Information Line on 1800 111 888, anytime day or night, for information on mental health services in your area. If you are struggling to cope, please call Samaritans for free on 116 123 (Ireland and UK), available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Pieta House helpline team are available to help 24 hours a day, every day of the year and can be contacted on 1800 247 247 or by texting HELP to 51444. Text About It also provide help 24 hours a day, seven days a week and can be reached by texting HELLO to 50808.
There are national guidelines in place for the reporting of suicides.
| Deaths due to suicide classified by annual report publication and revised updated figures 2007-2020 | |||
| Year | Annual Report 1 | Latest figures 2 | Percentage Difference |
| 2007 | 458 | 486 | 6.1 |
| 2008 | 506 | 531 | 4.9 |
| 2009 | 552 | 578 | 4.7 |
| 2010 | 495 | 524 | 5.9 |
| 2011 | 554 | 572 | 3.2 |
| 2012 | 541 | 585 | 8.1 |
| 2013 | 487 | 549 | 12.7 |
| 2014 | 486 | 578 | 18.9 |
| 2015 | 425 | 500 | 17.6 |
| 2016 | 437 | 531 | 21.5 |
| 2017 | 383 | 512 | 33.7 |
| 2018 | 437 | 548 | 25.4 |
| 2019 | 390 | 538 | 37.9 |
| 2020 | 465 | 504 | 8.4 |
| 1Figures for years 2007 to 2020 are derived from the Annual Reports | |||
| 2Figures have been updated to take account of late registration data | |||
The Percentage Difference figure for 2020 has been updated on 15/11/2023 from 8.7 to 8.4 due to a rounding issue.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (14 November 2023) released the Suicide Statistics 2020 release along with a new Statistical Table to take account of late registered deaths
Commenting on the release, Seán O'Connor, Statistician in the Vital Statistics section of the CSO, said: “All deaths attributable to external causes are referred to the Coroner's Court. As such, a lag can occur as to when these deaths are registered with the General Register Office (GRO), and in some cases they can be registered much later than the 22 month deadline to produce the CSO's Vital Statistics Annual Reports. This impact can be particularly pronounced regarding suicide statistics.
For instance, the 2020 Annual Report, published on 28 October, 2022, indicated that 465 deaths occurred due to suicide. Considering updated figures published in today’s release, this figure has increased by 8.4% to 504 deaths. Given the impact of these late registrations, particularly for external causes of mortality, the CSO has introduced a new table which will provide updated death statistics going initially from 2007 to 2020. This table will be updated frequently to provide users with the most up to date data on deaths, by sex, age, and detailed underlying cause of death.
It should be noted, given the number of late notifications, care should be taken when comparing external causes of mortality across time, as this data is more likely to have been revised to take into account the late registration of such deaths.
The Results
Analysing the 2020 data, of the 504 deaths due to suicide in 2020, seven out of every ten deaths were to those who were 35 years and over. Examining these deaths by sex, 72.6% occurred to males, with the remainder being to females.
Looking at cause of death by different cohorts provides very different trends. There were 74 deaths of males aged 20 to 24 years in 2020, and 43.2% of these were due to suicide. This was the highest proportion of deaths due to suicide by age cohort for males.
A similar pattern was seen for females, where nearly four out of every ten (39.1%) deaths occurring to females aged 20 to 24 was due to suicide.
Death due to suicide was the number one cause of death in 2020 for those aged 15 to 34 years of age.
The proportion of deaths due to suicide has been increasing for females over the last number of years. In 2012, the share of deaths was 18.8%, and rose to 27.4% in 2020.
In 2020, just over two out of every ten deaths due to suicide occurred in the Dublin region.”