Published online:
15 August 2012

The publication focuses on deaths and hospitalisations in 2010 and also contains time-trend analyses of suicide deaths from 1948 and intentional self-harm hospitalisations from 1996.
Key points
Suicide
Overview
- A total of 522 people died by suicide in New Zealand in 2010.
- This equates to 11.5 deaths per 100,000 population (age-standardised).
- The 2010 suicide rate was 23.6% below the peak rate in 1998.
Sex
- There were 380 male suicide deaths (17.0 deaths per 100,000 male population, age-standardised) in 2010.
- There were 142 female suicide deaths (6.4 deaths per 100,000 female population, age-standardised) in 2010.
- The 2010 male suicide rate was 28.9% below the peak rate in 1995.
- The female suicide rate has remained relatively stable since 1948, when records began.
- The ratio of male to female suicide death rate was 2.7:1 in 2010.
Youth (15–24 years)
- In 2010 the youth suicide rate was 17.7 deaths per 100,000 people aged 15–24.
- There were 78 male youth suicide deaths (23.8 per 100,000 population) and 35 female youth suicide deaths (11.3 per 100,000 population).
- Overall, the youth suicide rate has declined by 38.3% since the peak rate in 1995.
- The Māori youth suicide rate was 35.3 per 100,000 Māori youth population: more than 2.5 times higher than that of non-Māori youth (13.4 per 100,000).
Adults
- In 2010 the total suicide rate for adults aged 25–44 was 16.3 per 100,000 population. Male rates were 29.6% lower than the peak rates in 1997; female rates showed no obvious change between 1948 (when records began) and 2010.
- The total suicide rate for adults aged 45–64 was 14.2 per 100,000 population. Rates appear to have trended upwards between 2001 and 2010.
- Adults aged 65 and over had the lowest suicide rate (9.7 per 100.000 population). Between 1950 (the peak rate) and 2010 the rate for this group fell by 66.7%.
Ethnicity
- There were 104 Māori suicide deaths in 2010. This represents an age-standardised rate of 16.0 per 100,000 Māori population.
- There were 10.4 non-Māori deaths per 100,000 population (age-standardised) in 2010.
- There were 21 suicide deaths among Pacific peoples and 28 among Asian ethnic groups in 2010.
Deprivation
- There were 14.0 deaths per 100,000 population (age-standardised) in the most deprived areas and 10.7 deaths per 100,000 population (age-standardised) in the least deprived areas in 2010. This does not represent a significant difference.
- However, quintile 2 showed a significantly lower rate than quintile 5.
District health boards
- Over the five years 2006–2010, three DHB areas (Bay of Plenty, Tairawhiti and Southland) had significantly higher suicide rates than the total New Zealand rate.
- Waitemata, Auckland and Capital & Coast DHB areas had significantly lower suicide death rates than the country as a whole.
Urban/rural profile
- There was a significantly higher rate of suicide in rural areas when compared with urban areas (10.8 deaths per 100,000 population in urban areas, compared to 15.9 in rural areas).
- The highest rates of rural suicide are seen in adults aged 25−44 years.
Intentional self-harm hospitalisations
Overview
- There were 2825 intentional self-harm hospitalisations in New Zealand in 2010, which equates to 66.0 hospitalisations per 100,000 population (age-standardised).
- Between 1996 (the first year of comparable data) and 2010 there was a decrease of 23.1% in rates of intentional self-harm hospitalisations.
Sex
- Male hospitalisations involving intentional self-harm decreased markedly (by 31.0%) between 1996 and 2010.
- Female hospitalisations decreased by 19.2% between 2001 (when the rate peaked) and 2010.
- The ratio of female self-harm hospitalisation rate to male was 1.9:1 in 2010.
Age
- In 2010 males aged 20–24 had the highest rate of male self-harm hospitalisations (87.1 per 100,000).
- Females aged 15–19 had the highest rate of female self-harm hospitalisations (191.8 per 100,000).
Youth (15–24 years)
- The self-harm hospitalisation rate in males aged 15–24 years showed a significant downward movement of 46.0% between 1996 and 2010.
- The self-harm hospitalisation rate in females aged 15–24 years showed a downward movement of 28.3% in the same period.
Ethnicity
- The age-standardised rate for Māori self-harm hospitalisations in 2010 was the highest since 2001 (83.6 per 100,000 Māori in 2010).
- The age-standardised rate for non-Māori self-harm hospitalisations dropped markedly (by 28.7%) between 1996 and 2010.
Deprivation
- The self-harm hospitalisation rates among the most deprived New Zealanders were more than twice those among the least deprived in 2010.
- For both males and females, the differences in self-harm hospitalisation rates between the least and most deprived were statistically significant in 2010.
DHBs
- Wairarapa DHB had the highest age-standardised rate of self-harm hospitalisation in 2010.
- Auckland and Counties Manukau DHBs had the lowest age-standardised rates of self-harm hospitalisation in 2010.