Suicide statistics for the UK and the National Suicide Prevention Strategy

This chapter focuses on UK suicide statistics and the UK National Suicide Prevention Strategy, which is divided into countries. An earlier suicide prevention strategy in Scotland will be considered. The highest rates of suicide occurred in the early 1930s during the Depression, when rates for the older age groups were significantly higher than the lower age groups. Interestingly, in the nineteenth century, the trends for suicide rates in North America and the UK were similar with an average of 12.5 per 100, 000. The changes in age distribution have been similar too, especially with the recent percentage increase in the 15-24 age group and decrease by suicide deaths by people over 45 years (Williams, 2001). In the period from 1993 to 2002 more people committed suicide on Mondays compared to any other day and on 1 January 2000 the largest number of suicides occurred (Johnson et al., 2005) suggesting the possible effect of entering a new time period.