Suicide Facts: 2013 data

This page provides high level suicide information for 2013 ahead of the annual Suicide Facts 2013 publication.

Published online: 
26 November 2015

This 2013 data is provisional. It was extracted from the Ministry of Health’s Mortality Collection on 5 October 2015.

In New Zealand, a death is only officially classified as a suicide if determined by the coroner as intentionally self-inflicted following a coroner’s inquiry. There were 23 deaths registered in 2013 that were still subject to coroners’ findings with no provisional cause of death assigned to them at the time of data extraction (5 October 2015). Although these deaths are not included in the following data, some may later be classified as suicide.

The full publication based on provisional suicide data for 2013 is available in Suicide Facts: Deaths and intentional self-harm hospitalisations 2013.

Key data on suicide deaths in 2013

508 people died by suicide

In 2013, a total of 508 people (365 males and 143 females) died in New Zealand by suicide. This equates to an age-standardised rate of 11.0 deaths per 100,000 population. Overall, suicide rates remained relatively stable between 2004 and 2013, ranging from 10.9 to 12.2 deaths per 100,000 population over this period (Figures 1 and 2).

Figure 1.  Numbers and rates of suicide, 2004-2013
Figure 1. Numbers and rates of suicide, 2004–2013

 

Figure 2. Suicide rates, by sex, 2004-2013
Figure 2. Suicide rates, by sex, 2004–2013

Suicide rates were highest for males, youth and Māori

  • The male suicide rate was 16.0 deaths per 100,000 males compared to 6.3 deaths per 100,000 females.
  • Youth (15–24 years) had the highest suicide rate of 18.0 per 100,000 population of all life-stage groups (Figure 3).
  • The Māori suicide rate was 1.6 times the rate for non-Māori (15.8 deaths per 100,000 Māori population compared to 9.7 deaths per 100,000 non-Māori population). The rates for Māori males and females were 1.4 and 2.2 times the rates for non-Māori (Figure 4).
Figure 3. Suicide rates by life-stage age group, 2004-2013
Figure 3.  Suicide rates by life-stage age group, 2004–2013

 

Figure 4. Suicide rates for Māori and non-Māori, 2004 -2013
Figure 4. Suicide rates for Māori and non-Māori, 2004–2013

Suicide trends 2004–2013

Between 2004 and 2013 the male rate showed a general downward trend, except for the 2012 rate, which was slightly higher than the preceding years. The 2013 rate was the lowest rate for males recorded over this period. The female rate fluctuated between 5.0 and 6.6 deaths per 100,000 between 2004 and 2013. Over this period, the male suicide rate was consistently higher than the female suicide rate. In 2013, there were 2.6 male suicides for every female suicide (Figure 2).

This information and more will be provided in the Suicide Facts 2013 publication.

Publishing information

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