2. About suicide
  3. Suicide data

Suicide facts and stats

When interpreting or using suicide data it is important to remember that behind the numbers are people, families and communities impacted by suicide in Australia.

The reasons people take their own life are complex and often there is no single reason why a person attempts or dies by suicide.

Suicide data 2019 - ABS (released 2020)

  • In 2019, preliminary data showed a total of 3,318 deaths by suicide (age-standardised suicide rate 12.9 per 100,000), 2,502 males (19.8 per 100,000) and 816 females (6.3 per 100,000).
  • Consistently over the past 10 years, the number of suicide deaths was approximately three times higher in males than females.
  • All states and territories had an increase in numbers of suicide deaths, except for Queensland which had a decrease from 786 in 2018 to 784 in 2019.
  • In 2019, there has been an increase of suicide deaths from 3,138 deaths in 2018 (12.4 per 100,000).
For further summaries on the latest ABS Causes of Death data release visit the Mindframe website.
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Notes

1

Data on this webpage has been updated to reflect the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Catalogue 3303.0 Cause of Death Australia, 2019 released in October 2020.