- National suicide data
- Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
- Serving and ex-serving Australian Defence Force suicide monitoring
Serving and ex-serving Australian Defence Force members who have served since 1985: suicide monitoring 1997 to 2021
When exploring 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. By increasing our understanding of data alongside the lived experience of distress, we will increase the opportunity to save lives.
In 2014, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) established a partnership to build a comprehensive profile of the health and welfare of Australia’s veteran population.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report, Serving and ex-serving Australian Defence Force members who have served since 1985: suicide monitoring 1997 to 2021 (released 21 November 2023), is the sixth annual update on suicides among serving and ex-serving Australian Defence Force (ADF) members.
A note about the data
The data used in this report includes members with at least one day of service between 1985 and 2021, with suicides monitored from 1997 to 2021.
By 31 December 2021, around 385,000 Australians had served at least one day in the ADF between 1985 and 2021. Of these, approximately 368,000 were living, comprising of 60,000 permanent, 38,700 reserve and 269,000 ex-serving members.
Care should be taken when comparing data from previous publications. As the monitoring period has expanded since the previous report, a greater number of suicides are reported. However, the general patterns, rates of suicide and comparisons with the general Australian population remain similar to previous studies. Therefore, it is recommended to focus on suicide rates, rather than the number of deaths.
The larger study population enables more detailed analysis, providing greater insight into the risk and protective factors for suicide within the permanent, reserve and ex-serving populations.
Detailed technical notes can be found here.
Key findings
The following points provide a high-level summary of the data. Please note that the groups can overlap, and should not be seen as mutually exclusive.
Permanent and reserve males have a lower risk of suicide:
- Compared to the total population of Australian males, permanent (49% lower) and reserve males (45% lower) are about half as likely to die by suicide as Australian males.
Ex-serving males and females have a higher risk of suicide:
- Overall, ex-serving ADF members are at a higher risk of suicide than other Australians.
- Ex-serving males are 26% more likely to die by suicide, and ex-serving females are 107% more likely to die by suicide than other Australian males and females respectively. However, rates of suicide vary within subpopulations of the ex-serving cohort.
Males who separate for involuntary medical reasons have an increased risk of suicide:
- The suicide rate for ADF ex-serving males who separate voluntarily is similar to the general Australian population.
- The suicide rate for ex-serving males who separate involuntarily for medical reasons (67.1 per 100,000 population per year) is over three times higher than those who separated voluntarily (21.5 per 100,000 population per year).
Older age groups have lower rates of suicide:
- The suicide rate for ex-serving males aged 50 years and over (19.8 per 100,000 population per year) was significantly lower than the rate for ex-serving males under 50 years of age (36.8 per 100,000 population per year).
Those who separate as commissioned officers have lower rates of suicide:
- The suicide rate for ex-serving males who separated as commissioned officers is about half the rate of those who separated at any other rank (16.1 compared with 33.2 per 100,000 population per year).
Those with a longer length of service have lower rates of suicide:
- The suicide rate for ex-serving males who served for more than 20 years was about one-third of the rate of those who served for less than a year (16.2 compared with 47.5 per 100,000 population per year).
Time since separation is not a key factor:
- Regardless of the length of time since separation, the rate of suicide for ex-serving males is similar.
The majority of ADF members who separated for involuntary medical reasons were Department of Veteran Affairs (DVA) clients:
- Among ex-serving males who separated for involuntary medical reasons (a group known to be at higher suicide risk), 93% were DVA clients. However, among ex-serving males who separated for involuntary medical reasons and died by suicide, 29% were DVA clients.
