AIHW releases new data on suicide among Centrelink income support recipients

On Wednesday, 22 May 2024, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) released an update of suicide and self-harm monitoring data. This release featured new data on suicide deaths among people receiving selected types of income support payments from Centrelink between 2011 and 2021.

Key findings

These findings bolster previous analysis by AIHW showing that lower income, lower levels of educational attainment, and being unemployed or not participating in the labour force, are each associated with a higher risk of death by suicide. It is therefore vital to consider socioeconomic factors in suicide prevention policies and practice.

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LGBTIQ+ Australians: suicidal thoughts and behaviours and self-harm

This AIHW data release also included updates to current data pages on suicidal thoughts and behaviours and self-harm for LGBTIQ+ Australians. These updates were from results from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2020-22 National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing.

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Regression risk models for selected census variables

AIHW has previously used data from the Multi-Agency Data Integration Project (MADIP) to explore how social and economic factors are associated with greater risk of suicide. Regression risk models were used to investigate relationships between 10 social and economic factors from the 2011 census and deaths by suicide in Australia. This recent AIHW release included minor revisions to the write-up of the results from this analysis.

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