There were 356 deaths by suspected suicide of Welsh residents who died in or outside of Wales, between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023, giving a rate of 12.6 per 100,000 people. Males accounted for 78% of deaths by suspected suicide. The age-specific rate was highest in males aged 35-44 years (29.4 per 100,000) and males aged 25-34 years (29.2 per 100,000). Mid and West Wales had the highest rate of death by suspected suicide (15.7 per 100,000), which was statistically significantly different to the all-Wales rate and with North Wales and South-East Wales.
The rates of deaths by suspected suicide in residents in the most deprived and next most deprived areas (13.9 per 100,000 and 13.7 per 100,000) were statistically significantly higher than the rate in residents in the least deprived area (9.5 per 100,000). The rate of deaths by suspected suicide in people who were reported to be unemployed was 114.1 per 100,000, which was at least 12 times higher than in any other employment status group. 74% of the deaths by suspected suicide were in people previously known to the police.
This information will be useful to inform suicide prevention work in Wales in order to reduce the number of suicides in the Welsh population.