Suicide: Scottish trends
In 2015, 672 suicides were registered in Scotland (476 males and 196 females), compared to 696 (497 males, 199 females) registered in 2014. These numbers comprise deaths coded to 'intentional self-harm' and to 'events of undetermined intent'. These figures are based on the new coding rules (see Suicide Statistics technical paper). National Records of Scotland (NRS) estimate that under the old coding rules, the total would have been 656 suicides (467 males and 189 females) for 2014, and 659 (467 male, 192 females) for 2014. Note that figures based on the old coding rules are used in analysing time trends, for consistency with figures for years before 2011.
Overview and trends
The downloadable file Suicide: Scotland overview 2016 (71KB) contains numbers and rates of suicides by sex and age group, between 1982 and 2015. It also includes trends for 5-year rolling average EASRs (all ages) overall and for males and females separately.
In 2015 the overall European age-sex-standardised rate (EASR) was 12.8 deaths per 100,000 population, slightly lower than the 2014 figure of 13.3 per 100,000 and significantly lower than the 2013 figure of 15.2 per 100,000. The suicide EASR for males followed a similar pattern, with a rate of 18.5 per 100,000 in 2015 compared to 19.3 per 100,000 in 2014. For females, the suicide EASR in 2015 was 7.1 per 100,000, similar to the rate in 2014 (7.2 per 100,000). In 2015, the suicide rate for males was over two-and-a-half times that for females.
Chart 1 (view chart) shows trends in annual suicide rates in Scotland over the past 34 years, for persons, males and females. To allow for comparison between current and historical figures, the chart is based on the old coding rules (see Suicide Statistics technical paper). The largest rates over the 34 year period shown in Chart 1 were 18.2 deaths per 100,000 population in 1993 and 18.0 per 100,000 in 2002. Since 2002, the rate of suicide has generally decreased. The male suicide rate follows a similar pattern to the persons rate, while for females, rates have decrease steadily from 10.7 deaths per 100,000 in 1982 to 6.9 per 100,000 in 2015.
For background information on the use of EASRs, rebased populations and coding changes, please see the Suicide Statistics technical paper. Also, note that in 2009, how NRS obtains information about the nature of death changed. Since then, there has been a large increase in the percentage of poisoning deaths described as accidental, and a fall in those described as being due to events of undetermined intent. This contributed to the fall in recent years in the number of probable suicides. More information about this is available on the NRS website.
Age groups by sex
Chart 2 (view chart) shows age-specific crude suicide rates (using the old coding rules) for males in two five-year time periods twenty years apart: 1991-95 and 2011-15. Between these two periods rates have fallen for males of all ages, though the age distribution of deaths has changed slightly, with the highest suicide rate now in males aged 35-44 years. The largest absolute falls in the rates between the two time periods were in the males aged 15-24, 25-34 and 65-74.
Chart 3 (view chart) shows the equivalent rates for females. The rate has fallen for most all age categories, though the suicide rates for females aged 35-44 and 45-54 years have increased. The highest rates for females are among those aged 45-54 years, one age-band older than for males. The largest absolute falls in the rates between the two time periods were in females aged 65-74 and 75+.
Suicide coding categories
In this publication suicide is defined as a death resulting from either intentional self-harm or an event of undetermined intent. Chart 4 (view chart) presents the trends in annual EASRs over the last 34 years for intentional self-harm and events of undetermined intent separately (using old coding rules). The general pattern of a rise then a decline over the period is seen in both categories.