You asked
FOI/2021/2226
I would like microdata on suicides in UK from about 1960; it could be at the level of regions, municipalities
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
Unfortunately, we would be unable to disclose microdata relating to suicides in the UK. Section 39 of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 (SRSA) makes it an offence to release personal information. Personal information is any information held by the Board for statistical purposes that would identify an individual or a body corporate. This includes individuals that are deceased. Because disclosure is prohibited by another enactment, s.44 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) applies.
However, you may find the following analysis we hold of use:
- The earliest analysis we hold is from 1972 to 1976, which is available in the following publication: Number of suicides: males, birth years 1972 to 1976, England and Wales
- Our regular annual publications provide suicide data from 2011 to 2019: Suicides in England and Wales. Each of these bulletins provide registered deaths in England and Wales from suicide analysed by sex, age, area of usual residence of the deceased and suicide method. Please also see the green tab on the right-hand side of the bulletin webpage, which will provide the datasets used in these bulletins.
- For suicide data in earlier years, dating back to 1981, please see the following link to ONS suicide data stored on The National Archives website.
- We also produce provisional suicide data for England on a quarterly basis, with the latest update including deaths up to December 2020. However, please note that this publication explains that most suicides require an inquest, where a coroner must investigate the cause of death. The amount of time taken to hold an inquest causes a lag between the date the death occurred and the date the death is registered. Therefore, many of the deaths registered in 2020 would have occurred in 2019.
If these publications do not meet your needs, we may be able to create a custom output for you. Information on deaths by suicide, along with other special extracts and tabulations of mortality data for England and Wales are available to order (subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs, where appropriate).
Such enquiries would fall outside of the Freedom of Information regime and can be made to: Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.