British male suicide rates at 30-year low

Male suicide rates in the UK have fallen to their lowest levels in more than 30 years, although men still make up three-quarters of those who take their own life in Britain.

Official figures from the Office for National Statistics show there were 4,383 male suicides in 2017, a rate of 15.5 per 100,000 – down from over 20 in the late 1980s.

The suicide rate among women, 4.9 per 100,000, has remained stable for the past 10 years.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Ruth Sutherland, head of the Samaritans charity, attributed the fall to a recent focus on suicide prevention specifically targeting men and efforts to reduce stigma around men’s mental health.

However, she said “every death was still one too many” and warned that suicide continues to affect the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people in society.

Overall, a breakdown of the ONS figures reveals that men aged 45 to 49 were the demographic with the highest suicide rate, with 24.8 deaths per 100,000.

Scotland had an overall suicide rate of 13.9 per 100,000 population, its lowest since 1981, although still higher than England (9.2) and Wales (around 12) in 2017.

The English region with the highest suicide rate was the North East while the lowest was London.

There was also alarm at the increase in the number of teenage suicides in England and Wales, which rose 67% between 2010 and 2017.

“Studies have linked social media to increasing anxiety and depression among teenagers” reports The Independent, while a steep increase in tuition fees has also been suggested as a stress factor among the young.

The latest figures follow June's announcement that the teenage suicide rate in London had increased at more than four times the national rate in the three years from 2013.

Barbara Keeley, Labour’s shadow minister for mental health, told The Independent that the latest figures were a “national scandal”, promising a Labour government would increase the proportion of the budget spent on young people’s mental health services and provide access to a school-based counselling service in every secondary school.

The Samaritans offer support to people having suicidal thoughts. You can call them free on 116 123.