3303.0 - Causes of Death, Australia, 2014 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 08/03/2016   
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KEY CHARACTERISTICS

There were 2,864 deaths from Intentional self-harm (X60-X84, Y87.0) in 2014, resulting in a ranking as the 13th leading cause of all deaths. About three-quarters (75.4%) of people who died by suicide were male, making intentional self-harm the 10th leading cause of death for males. Deaths due to intentional self-harm occurred at a rate of 12.0 per 100,000 population in 2014.

Graph Image for Suicides(a), Number of deaths, 2005-2014(b)

Annotation(s): (a) Includes ICD-10 codes X60-X84 and Y87.0. Care needs to be taken in interpreting figures relating to suicide. See Explanatory Notes 85-92. (b) All causes of death data from 2006 onward are subject to a revisions process - once data for a reference year are 'final', they are no longer revised. Affected data in this table are: 2006-2012 (final), 2013 (revised) and 2014 (preliminary). See Explanatory Notes 68-94 and the Causes of Death Revisions, 2012 and 2013 Technical Note in this publication.

Source(s): Suicides(a), Number of deaths, 2005-2014(b)-Number of Suicides by sex 2005-2014



Suicide as proportion of total deaths

While intentional self-harm accounts for a relatively small proportion (1.9%) of all deaths in Australia, it accounts for a greater proportion of deaths within specific age groups. For example, in 2014, over a quarter of deaths of males in each of the 15-19, 20-24, 25-29, and 30-34 year age groups were due to intentional self-harm (35.9%, 34.9%, 29.9% and 31.5%, respectively). Similarly for females, intentional self-harm deaths comprise a higher proportion of total deaths in younger age groups compared with older age groups (25.0% of deaths of persons aged 10-14 years, 27.1% of deaths of persons aged 15-19 years, 30.2% of deaths of persons aged 20-24 years and 20.4% of deaths in the 25-29 year age group).