From July 2020 to June 2021 in New Zealand, there were:

607 suspected suicides (~50 per month, 11.7 per week, 1.7 per day)
472 male suspected suicides (78%)
135 female suspected suicides (22%)

In the last three years:

Female suspected suicide counts have been declining
Male suspected suicide counts have been increasing

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NOTES:

• The Ministry of Health Suicide Web Tool shows data for the July-June Government reporting year and contains 13 years of data going back to 2009.
• Confirmed vs suspected suicides:
  • Confirmed suicide data is available for the 10 years from 2009 to 2018 but not 2019 to 2021 due to ongoing coroner inquiries.
  • The confirmed numbers are updated each year.
  • Suspected suicide data is available for all 13 years from 2009 to 2021.
  • The suspected numbers are not updated each year. They reflect the suspected suicide numbers at the time the data was extracted.
  • The suspected and confirmed suicide numbers are similar totals, having averaged a 13.7 count variance over these years.
  • Occasionally, confirmed number counts by gender can be higher than suspected, e.g. 2008/09 and 2011/12.
• The Ministry of Health prefers to age-standardise rates per capita and this data is also available via the source below. Per capita suicide numbers have remained relatively consistent over the last 13 years.
• We decided to show suspected suicide counts for several reasons:
  • Age-standardisation is a complex statistical adjustment to explain, understand, and compare.
  • For consistency, we used the same data set rather than mix confirmed with suspected.
  • Humans can grasp and recall counts far more quickly than per 100,000 population ratios.
  • Counts can be easily translated into annual, monthly, weekly, and daily figures.
  • One suicide is one too many, so we felt it was important to represent each life lost.
• The Ministry of Health uses biological gender for classification.
• All numbers are provisional and subject to revision.

Thank you to the Factors who helped us pull this research together

SOURCES:

https://minhealthnz.shinyapps.io/suicide-web-tool/ (View data > By sex. Year = Financial Year. Measure = Number. > Download selected data)

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Data published by Ministry of Health
(c) Crown Copyright
Licensed for use under the creative commons attribution licence (BY) 4.0

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Did we make a mistake, or have you got smarter data? Let us know.