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Suicide prevention

About this topic

Every life lost to suicide is a tragedy for family, friends, kin and communities. Although suicide and intentional self-harm are complex issues, they can be prevented. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare respectfully acknowledges those who have died or have been affected by suicide or intentional self-harm.

Connection to community

Connection to community is one of the 7 domains of social and emotional wellbeing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people.

Social and emotional wellbeing is a holistic way of looking at relationships between individuals, family, kin and community in the context of land, culture, spirituality and ancestry. Cultural groups and individuals each have their own interpretation of social and emotional wellbeing (Gee et al. 2014).

Self-governance and support networks can help build connection to community (PM&C 2017). People can be disconnected from community through a lack of meaningful support networks, disintegration of the family, lack of recognised role models, and the persistent cycle of grief due to the many deaths in communities. These factors may contribute to occurrences of suicide (Silburn et al. 2014).

Suicide and intentional self-harm behaviours arise from a complex web of personal, social and historical factors (Dudgeon et al. 2017). Experiencing the sorrow and loss of family and community members in short succession can mean being in a constant state of grief and mourning (Silburn et al. 2014).

Suicidal behaviour can appear in clusters—this is a rapid increase in the number of suicides in a few months or years, or within a certain geographical area. Exposure to suicidal behaviour may be a factor contributing to increased suicides.

Historical factors may also contribute to suicide. Suicide among First Nations people is considered a post-colonisation phenomenon that markedly increased in prevalence from the 1960s (Hunter & Milroy 2006; Silburn et al. 2014). Understanding the ongoing effects of colonisation and the importance of culture is important for individual and communal healing (Silburn et al. 2014).

Effective suicide prevention requires a multi-sector approach that includes health, education, employment, welfare agencies, law-enforcement agencies, housing providers and non-government organisations (AIHW 2020). Programs and care can be delivered to:

  • a whole community (regardless of their level of suicide risk)
  • those at imminent risk of suicide
  • those who need follow-up after a suicide attempt (AIHW 2018).

In 2020, all Australian governments and the Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organisations worked in partnership to develop the National Agreement on Closing the Gap- external site opens in new window (the National Agreement), built around 4 Priority Reforms. The National Agreement also identifies 19 targets across 17 socioeconomic outcome areas. One of these targets directly relates to suicide prevention, monitored annually by the Productivity Commission.

National Agreement on Closing the Gap: social and emotional wellbeing-related targets

Outcome area 14: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people enjoy high levels of social and emotional wellbeing

  • Target: Significant and sustained reduction in suicide of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people towards zero (from an age-standardised rate of 25.1 per 100,000 people in 2018).
  • Status: In 2021, the suicide age-standardised rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was 27.1 per 100,000 people (for NSW, Queensland, WA, SA and the NT combined). To measure progress toward this target, a trajectory of a 75% reduction is presented on the Closing the Gap information repository. The 2021 rate is above the trajectory rate of 20.8 per 100,000 people.

Source: Closing the Gap information repository.

Postvention services support people who have been exposed to or bereaved by suicide. These services aim to help reduce distress and the risk of suicide (AHA 2014).

The Centre of Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention (CBPATSISP) develops evidence for effective suicide prevention strategies for First Nations people and communities (Dudgeon et al. 2019). The CBPATSISP research shows that effective suicide response is multi-layered. It includes prevention for individuals, tailored responses for high-risk groups, and multi-level suicide prevention activities for individuals, families and communities. These activities include:

  • raising community awareness of mental health and suicide
  • addressing substance use and employment issues
  • promoting healing in families by strengthening social and emotional wellbeing.

Suicide prevention strategies are more likely to succeed if they are co-designed and implemented with First Nations community leadership. Communities understand the lived experience of community members at risk of suicide and are best placed to design suicide responses (Dudgeon et al. 2019).

Key statistics

The following data are from New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. Data from these jurisdictions were considered to have adequate levels of Indigenous identification in mortality data at the time the data were released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Data from 2020, 2021 and 2022 are not final and may be subject to revision.

In 2022, 212 First Nations people died by suicide (an age-standardised rate of 29.9 per 100,000 population). Suicide was the fifth leading cause of death among First Nations people, and the 17th leading cause of death for non-Indigenous Australians (ABS 2023a). It was the leading cause of death for First Nations people aged 15–44 years and third leading cause of death for First Nations people aged 1–14 (ABS 2023a).

In 2022, suicide accounted for 4.6% of all deaths of First Nations people while the comparable proportion for non-Indigenous Australians was 1.6% (AIHW 2023) (Table SP.2).

From 2010 to 2022, the age-standardised rate of suicide among First Nations people fluctuated, from a low of 18.9 per 100,000 population in 2012 to a high of 29.9 per 100,000 population in 2022, based on preliminary data. This was a greater fluctuation compared to rates for non-Indigenous Australians over the same period (AIHW 2023) (Figure 1; Table SP.2).

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Data from 2018–2022 show that the suicide rate was highest among First Nations people aged 35–44 (52.3 per 100,000 population), 25–34 (48.4 per 100,000) and 15–24 (41.0 per 100,000) (ABS 2023a) (Figure 2; Table SP.3).

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In the period 2018–2022, the age-standardised rate for First Nations males was 41.5 per 100,000 and 14.1 per 100,000 for First Nations females (ABS 2023a) (Figure 3; Table SP.3).

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Data from 2018–2022 by state or territory show the annual age-standardised suicide rate was highest in Western Australia (38.1 per 100,000) and lowest in New South Wales (22.8 per 100,000). For non-Indigenous Australians, suicide rates were lower than for First Nations people in all 5 states and territories (ABS 2023a) (Figure 4; Table SP.1).

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The following data refer to the annual crude suicide rates among First Nations people, in areas defined as Indigenous Regions (IREG), covering New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory.

Note:

  • crude rates are not comparable with age-standardised rates
  • certain IREGs in WA, NT and SA have been combined to avoid suppressing data.

Data from 2011–2020 combined show that the rate of suicide among First Nations people varied greatly between IREGs. Kununurra in Western Australia had the highest rate of suicide, with 71.3 per 100,000 persons. The lowest suicide rate was recorded in Torres Strait, with 6.8 per 100,000 (Figure 5; Table SP.5).

The rate of suicide among First Nations males was higher than the rate among First Nations females in all IREGs covered here. The IREG with the highest suicide rate among First Nations males was Mount Isa (90.2 per 100,000), and the IREG with the lowest reportable suicide rate among First Nations males was Sydney - Wollongong (17.5 per 100,000 males) (Figure 5; Table SP.5).

Among First Nations females, Kununurra was the IREG with the highest rate of suicide (62.8 per 100,000), and New South Wales Central and North Coast was the IREG with the lowest rate (5.3 per 100,000 females) (Figure 5; Table SP.5).

The male and female rates are not shown for the Torres Strait IREG, which had the lowest First Nations suicide rate for all persons, because of confidentiality concerns related to the small numbers of recorded suicides (Figure 5; Table SP.5).

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age-standardised rates remove the influence of age differences when comparing data from different groups. Populations often do not have the same age structure; for example, the Indigenous Australian population has a younger age profile and the non-Indigenous population has an older age profile. To remove the influence of population age differences from the data, the age distribution of these populations has to be standardised before rates can be compared (Earyes 2008). This method is called age-standardisation.

crude rates are defined as the number of events over a specified period (for example, a year) divided by the total population at risk of the event. Crude rates are not adjusted to account for variation in age structure between different populations, time periods or locations.

The term intentional self-harm includes attempts to suicide, as well as cases where people have intentionally hurt themselves, but not necessarily with the intention of suicide.

Non-Indigenous Australians refers to Australian people who have declared that they are not of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent.

Postvention services support people who have been exposed or bereaved through suicide. These services aim to help reduce distress and the risk of suicide.

Suicidal behaviours include having thoughts about suicide (suicidal ideation), planning suicide and attempting suicide.

Suicide is a deliberate action intended end one’s own life.

This information was compiled from the following data sources: National Mortality Database and the ABS Causes of Death collection. More information about this data source and its data quality is available in Data sources.

For more information about causes of death and suicide rates in Australia, see the AIHW National Suicide and Self-harm Monitoring System and ABS Causes of Death, Australia.

Data on the deaths of First Nations people by suicide are compiled by jurisdiction of usual residence for New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. Indigenous identification is considered adequate for mortality reporting in these jurisdictions. The quality of Indigenous identification within these jurisdictions may vary between Indigenous Regions.

Causes-of-death data may underestimate the number of deaths among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia. In 2022, there were 975 deaths registered in Australia in which Indigenous status was not recorded: this was 0.5% of all registered deaths (ABS 2023b). Caution should be exercised when interpreting data for First Nations people, especially regarding year-to-year changes and Indigenous Regions.

Additionally, deaths due to external causes, such as suicide, are usually referred to a coroner for investigation. As coronial investigations are affected by a lag in registration time, not all deaths are registered in the year which they occur. Initial data for causes of death are subject to change. Each year, data are updated as more findings from the coroner are established. Statistics for deaths registered in 2019 and earlier are based on the final version of cause of death data; statistics for deaths registered in 2020 are based on revised data; 2021 on preliminary revised data and 2022 on preliminary data. Revised and preliminary data are subject to further revision by the ABS.

See ABS Causes of Death 2022, Methodology for more information.

ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) 2023a. Causes of death, Australia, 2022. ABS cat. no. 3303.0. Canberra: ABS. Viewed 6 November 2023, https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/causes-death/causes-death-australia/2022

ABS 2023b. Causes of death, Australia methodology. Canberra: ABS. Viewed 6 November 2023.

AHA (Australian Healthcare Associates) 2014. Evaluation of suicide prevention activities: final report. Melbourne: AHA.

AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) 2018. Australia’s health 2018. Australia’s health series no. 16. AUS 221. Canberra: AIHW.

AIHW 2022. Suicide and self-harm monitoring. Canberra: AIHW. Viewed 04 May 2023.

Dudgeon P, Calma T & Holland C 2017. The context and causes of the suicide of Indigenous people in Australia. Journal of Indigenous Wellbeing 2(2):5–15.

Dudgeon P, Holland C & Walker R 2019. Fact sheet 5 What works in Indigenous suicide prevention. Perth: Centre of Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention (CBPATSISP) & Poche Centre for Indigenous Health, School of Indigenous Studies, University of Western Australia.

Earyes D 2008. Technical briefing 3: Commonly used public health statistics and their confidence intervals. Association of Public Health Observatories. York, UK.

Gee G, Dudgeon P, Schultz C, Hart A & Kelly K 2014. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional wellbeing. In: Dudgeon P, Milroy H & Walker R (eds). Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practice. 2nd edn. Canberra: Australian Government, pp. 55–68.

Hunter E & Milroy H 2006. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide in context. Archives in Suicide Research 10(2):141–157

PM&C (Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet) 2017. National Strategic Framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ Mental Health and Social and Emotional Wellbeing. Canberra: Australian Government.

Silburn S, Robinson G, Leckning B, Henry D, Cox A & Kickett D 2014. Preventing suicide among aboriginal Australians. In: Dudgeon P, Milroy H & Walker R (eds). Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practice. 2nd edn. Canberra: Australian Government, pp. 147–64.

Data tables

Table number and title Source Reference year
Table SP.1: Suicide rates among First Nations people by state or territory, age-standardised rates, 2018–2022 ABS Causes of Death 2022
Table SP.2: Suicide rates by Indigenous status, 2010 to 2022 AIHW National Mortality Database (NMD) 2010–2022
Table SP.3: Suicide rates by Indigenous status, age and sex, 2018–2022

ABS Causes of Death

AIHW NMD, as published in AIHW Suicide and self-harm monitoring

2018–2022
Table SP.4: Suicide rates by Indigenous status and sex, 2022 ABS Causes of Death 2022
Table SP.5: Suicide rates among First Nations people by sex and Indigenous Region (IREG), crude rates, 2011–2020

AIHW analysis of ABS Causes of Death collection 2020

AIHW analysis of ABS population data

2011–2020

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Data tables: Suicide prevention
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