Youth Suicide and Self-Injury Australia

• In 1995, 25 percent of all male deaths in Australia at ages 15 to 24 years were due to suicide. For females, the equivalent proportion was 17 percent.
• The number of suicide deaths registered in this age group was 434.
• 350 (81 percent) of these suicide deaths were males, and 84 (19 percent) were females.
• Only Motor Vehicle Accident deaths were more numerous than suicide (male: n=448, female: n=146).

• Admission to a hospital because of intentional self-injury is about ten times more common than death due to suicide at ages 15 to 24 years.
• The ratio of admissions to deaths is higher for females (34 to 1) than males (5 to 1).
• The rate of suicide deaths is higher for young males than young females (5.6 times higher in the year charted) while the rate of admissions for self-injury is higher for females (1.5 times higher in the charted year). This reflects the more frequent use of lethal methods by males (see Figure 13).

• The rate of registered suicide in Australia among males aged 15 to 24 years trebled from 1960 to 1990.
• No further increase has been recorded since about 1990.
• There has been no parallel recent rise in the rate of suicide among young females. (However, the rate for females approximately doubled during the early 1960s).

Note: Burvill (1980) discussed the drop in male rates during WW2 in relation to explanations advanced for war-time reductions in suicide elsewhere. (¹) It is at least partly a data artefact [see Data Issues]

• Suicide rates for males aged 15 to 24 years were much lower than all-ages rates for most of the twentieth century (Figure 4). In recent years, rates for the young age group have been higher than the all-ages rate.
• Rates for young females were similar to all-ages rates in the earliest and latest parts of the period charted.
• From the 1940s to the 1970s, rates for young women were lower than all-ages rates. In the first half of this period, rates for the young group were low; in the second half, all-ages rates were high, during the epidemic of suicide by means of sedatives. (²)

Note: the all-ages rates have been standardised by the direct method. The Australian population in 1991 is the standard.

• For most of the twentieth century, road deaths have been much more common than suicides among young males in Australia.
• Road deaths rates have dropped sharply since about 1970, the period of vigorous road safety efforts.
• Rates of suicide and road death are now similar for young males.

Note: The sharp drop in road deaths in the 1940s is largely attributable to reduced road travel due to fuel rationing. It is partly due to a data artefact [see Data Issues]

• The road death epidemic has been less pronounced for young females than for young males, and suicide rates have not risen greatly in this group. However, rates of suicide and road death are more similar now than for several decades

• Earlier this century, male suicide rates in Australia generally rose with age. In recent years, rates have been similar throughout adult ages, though highest at its extremes.
• The drop in rates in middle age and older mainly occurred several decades ago. The rise in rates for young men has mainly occurred in recent decades.

• The main change in the age-pattern of female suicide in Australia has been the increased rate of suicide in middle age in the middle part of the century, due to suicide by sedative poisoning. (²)

• For suicide deaths registered in 1995 (the latest year for which data are available), male rates in early adulthood were significantly higher than rates in middle age.
• Female rates did not vary significantly between adult age groups.

• The prominence of young males among suicide deaths is striking when case numbers are charted, rather than age-specific rates.

• Hospital admissions due to suicide-related behaviour are even more sharply concentrated at early adult ages than is the case for suicide deaths.

• Suicide rates for young Aboriginal males are higher than for other young males, and suicide is more sharply concentrated in early adult years for Aboriginal than for non-Aboriginal Australians.
• This is particularly so for the three jurisdictions shown, where it may reflect the relatively high proportion of Aboriginal persons residing in remote-areas.

• Methods used differ greatly between suicide deaths and cases hospitalised for self-harm. Hanging, shooting and poisoning with vehicle exhaust are common among deaths. Poisoning by solid and liquid substances (mainly drugs) accounts for four-fifths of hospitalised cases.
• Smaller differences in methods are seen between males and females than between the two categories of cases. Males tend to use hanging and shooting, while females tend to use drugs.

• The prominence of methods used by young males for suicide has changed substantially in recent decades.
• The rate of suicide by hanging has increased five-fold since 1979.
• The rate of suicide by shooting has dropped by about 50 percent, mostly in the latter part of the period.
• The "other and unspecified" group is tending to rise. This is due to increases in cases of jumping before a moving object, and of jumping from a height.

• The decline in the rate of suicide of young females by means of solid and liquid poisons is the tail end of the epidemic of suicide by means of sedatives, which peaked in the 1960s. (Available data for Australia cannot show whether the change was in the rate of self-poisoning episodes, or the proportion with a fatal result.)
• As for young males, the rate of suicide by means of hanging has increased.
• The rate for the "other and unspecified" group has fluctuated widely. It was relatively high in 1995. As for males, cases of jumping before a moving object, and of jumping from a height are prominent.

• Rates of suicide at ages 15 to 24 vary between States and Territories. Differences were not statistically significant in 1995, either for persons (shown in the Figure), or for either gender.

• Suicide rates are higher for young males who normally reside in non-urban areas than for urban residents. The rates are high both in the "Rural other" areas and in the "Remote other" areas.
• This pattern is more pronounced for young men than for men of all ages.

• Means of suicide also differed according to the place of usual residence for young males. The largest difference was in the proportion of suicides by means of firearms, which was highest among males usually residing in "Rural other" and "Remote other" areas.
• Although shooting accounted for a large proportion of young male suicides in non-urban areas, the number of firearm suicides in these areas during the three years charted (n=120) was almost the same as the number in capital cities (n=121).
• The suicide rate for young Australian males in 1994 was similar to that in the same (or closest available) year for several countries including Canada and Norway, lower than in New Zealand and Finland, and higher than in most European countries, Japan and Singapore. (³)
• The rise in suicide rates for young males has not been restricted to Australia. Rates have risen markedly in recent decades in countries including New Zealand, Canada, USA, and certain European countries. (⁴, ⁵)
• Reported suicide rates for young females are lower than those for young males in nearly all countries for which data are readily available. China is an exception.
• For the period charted, the rate for Australian females aged 15 to 24 was similar to the rates reported for a wide range of European and other countries.