Australian Bureau of Statistics Causes of Death

Causes of Death data release 2022

Released by the ABS on Wednesday, 27 September 2023.

• In 2022, there were 3,249 suicide deaths in Australia, with an age-standardised rate of 12.3 deaths per 100,000 population. The rate for 2022 is a slight increase from the rate recorded for 2021 (12.1 per 100,000).
• The aged-standardised rate for males increased by 2.6% between 2021 and 2022.
• The age-standardised rate for females decreased by 2.3% between 2021 and 2022.
• Young and middle-aged people are more likely to die by suicide than those in older age groups, with 81.7% of people who died by suicide being under the age of 65.
• Men aged over 85 years had the highest male age-specific suicide rate but accounted for the smallest proportion (2.9%) of male suicides.
• Men aged between 45-49 years had the highest age-specific suicide rate of those aged under 85 years, accounting for the largest proportion of deaths due to suicide (10.7%).
• In 2022, women aged over 85 years had the highest female age-specific suicide rate for the first time since the beginning of the ABS mortality data time series with a rate of 10.6 per 100,000.
• Women aged 45-49 years had the highest female age-specific suicide rate of females aged under 85 years (8.8 per 100,000).
• There were 239 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who died by suicide across Australia in 2022.
• Using data from New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and Northern Territory, the age-standardised suicide rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was 29.9 per 100,000. This is the highest suicide rate in the 10-year time series.
• The highest number of suicide deaths occurred in New South Wales (911 deaths). However, the Northern Territory recorded the highest rate of suicide (age-standardised rate 20.5 per 100,000 people).
• Almost 86% of suicides had at least one risk factor reported, with an average of 3-4 factors mentioned. Mood disorders (including depression) were the most common risk factor for both males (34.9%) and females (43.3%) for all age groups except for those 85 years and older.
• There were 84 people (2.6% of all suicide deaths) who had the COVID-19 pandemic mentioned in either a police, pathology or coronial finding report.
• Data for 2022 includes information on country of birth for those who died by suicide. Those born in Australia had an age-standardised rate of 14.7 per 100,000, while those born overseas had an age-standardised rate of 8.2 per 100,000.

Summaries