Suicide Facts: Provisional 2003 All-Ages Statistics

Suicide Facts: Provisional 2003 All-Ages Statistics

Date of publication: February 2006

ISBN 0-478-29918-4 (Book)
ISBN 0-478-29919-2 (Website)
HP 4216

Citation: Ministry of Health. 2006. Suicide Facts: Provisional 2003 All-Ages Statistics. Monitoring Report No. 1. Wellington: Ministry of Health.

Key Points

Suicide deaths in 2003

A total of 515 people died by suicide, compared with 465 in 2002.
The age-standardised suicide rate was 11.5 deaths per 100,000 population, compared with 10.8 in 2002.
The three-year moving average age-standardised rate of suicide for the total population increased to a peak of 14.0 deaths per 100,000 population for the
1995–1997 and 1996–1998 periods. It then decreased until the most recent period (2001–2003).
Males continue to have a higher age-standardised suicide rate than females (16.9 compared with 6.2 per 100,000 population respectively). From 1995, there was a decline in the male rate, and then after 2000 there was a general increase in the female rate.
The all-ages sex ratio for the suicide rate in New Zealand was 2.7 male suicides to every female suicide per 100,000 population.
The age-standardised rate of suicide was higher for Māori than for non-Māori. For Māori males and females, the age-standardised rates were 21.1 and 6.4 deaths per 100,000 population respectively, and for non-Māori males and females, they were 15.6 and 5.9 deaths per 100,000 population respectively.
For life-cycle age groups, for females, 1524-year-olds had the highest age-specific suicide rate (11.0 per 100,000 population), while for males, 2544-year-olds had the highest age-specific suicide rate (28.4 per 100,000 population).
New Zealand’s all-ages suicide rate was the sixth highest among selected OECD countries for males, and the fourth highest for females.
The least deprived areas of New Zealand had a suicide rate of 8.8 per 100,000 population compared with 13.2 per 100,000 population in the most deprived areas of New Zealand.

Hospitalisation for suicide and intentional self-harm in 2002/03

The age-standardised hospitalisation rate for suicide and intentional self-harm for the total population was 131.5 per 100,000 population, compared with 128.2 in 2001/02.
The sex ratio for hospitalisation for suicide and intentional self-harm in New Zealand was 2.1 female hospitalisations to every male hospitalisation per 100,000 population.

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