Official Statistics

Near to real-time suspected suicide surveillance (nRTSSS) for England: data to April 2025

Published 31 July 2025

Applies to England

This statistical bulletin contains sensitive content which refers to details on deaths by suspected suicide.

If you are struggling to cope, please call the Samaritans for free on 116 123 (UK and the Republic of Ireland) or contact other sources of support, such as those listed on the NHS help for suicidal thoughts webpage. Support is available around the clock, every day of the year, providing a safe place for you, whoever you are and however you are feeling.

Any onward reporting of this data should consider following the Samaritans’ media guidelines on the reporting of suicide because of the potentially damaging consequences of irresponsible reporting. In particular, the guidelines advise on terminology and include links to sources of support for anyone affected by the themes in this report.

Main findings

This statistical bulletin presents data from April 2023 to April 2025. It shows that:

• there is no statistically significant difference between the suspected suicide directly standardised rate (DSR) in April 2025 (8.9 deaths per 100,000), compared to March 2025 (10.0 per 100,000) or February 2025 (11.0 per 100,000)
• the suspected suicide rate in April 2025 in males (13.9 per 100,000) remains higher than females (4.3 per 100,000)
• the age group with the highest rate of suspected suicide in April 2025 remains in those aged 45 to 64 (13.0 per 100,000), followed by people aged 25 to 44, then those aged 65 and over, with the lowest rate in those aged 10 to 24 (4.1 per 100,000) - there is no evidence of a statistically significant change compared to recent months in any of these age groups
• the most common method type for deaths by suspected suicide in the latest quarter (January to March 2025) remains hanging, suffocation and strangulation (54.6%), followed by poisoning (23.1%), fall and fracture (6.6%), jumping or lying in front of a moving object (4.7%), sharp object (3.3%), drowning (3.0%) and other or unknown (4.7%)

These statistics use the majority of records received from the police forces to calculate rates of deaths by suspected suicide. However, as the data is not exhaustive and due to wider data quality factors, this report should not be used as a measure of absolute numbers of deaths by suspected suicide in England. For further details on inclusion criteria and approach used to calculate rates, see the accompanying methodology document.

Introduction

This statistical bulletin is based on suspected suicides reported by local police. It complements, but does not replace, suicide registration data based on a coroner’s verdict to confirm cause of death and reported by the Office of National Statistics (ONS). Near to real-time surveillance is based on date of death, whereas ONS reports on date of registration of death, which can occur up to 2 years after the date of death and on occasion longer.

The purpose of this work is to provide an early warning system for indications of changes in trends in suicide through analysis of data on suspected suicide. This data can inform and enable a more timely and targeted prevention response to changing patterns in suspected suicides at a local and national level.

This statistical bulletin draws upon suspected suicide data from across England supplied by local police force areas (PFAs) submitting to the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) Suicide Prevention Portfolio. The designation ‘suspected suicide’ is provided by the police and the term is used because the cause of death has not yet been confirmed by coroner’s inquest. When sudden and unexpected death occurs, the suspected cause of death is allocated by the attending police officer. There is then a review, based on guidance from NPCC, before a death is reported as a suspected suicide.

This bulletin presents data at England level. It includes rates of death by suspected suicide and breaks the data down by age group and sex. This data is presented as monthly DSRs. Monthly rates are presented for the most recent available 25 months, to enable a comparison of the latest months with the same month in previous years.

The bulletin also includes suspected suicide method, grouped by category. This too has not been confirmed by coroner’s inquest and should be viewed as provisional. This data is shown as proportions of all suspected suicides and is presented as a snapshot figure for the latest available quarter.  

The data outputs from the near to real-time suspected suicide surveillance (nRTSSS) work programme are primarily for national and local organisations working on suicide prevention.

This statistical bulletin is classified as an official statistic.

About these statistics

To enhance understanding of this bulletin, some important terms and aspects of the work are explained below. For further details on how these terms are defined and used, and on how results were generated, see the accompanying methodology document.

Data presented in this bulletin is based on month and year of death occurrence. This differs from ONS suicide statistics which are usually based on date of registration of death. The approach used in this bulletin allows monitoring of monthly and seasonal variation.  

Not all PFAs submit records each month and some PFA submissions are not used in monthly rates reporting. For records from a PFA to be included, there must be a submission for that month, and it must meet the ‘observed compared to expected’ criteria. This means the number of deaths by suspected suicide are comparable (within a tolerance range) with the number that would be expected, based on recent deaths by suicide for that area (as collected by ONS). These inclusion criteria are used for the purpose of calculating population-based statistics only. This is because sensitivity analysis indicated that inclusion of PFAs below the expected level may result in an underestimation of monthly suspected suicide rates.

Data about method of suspected suicide is presented by quarter, because the number of method groups would lead to small number suppression if presented monthly. All records received are included in quarterly presentation.

The monthly data is presented as DSRs to enable comparison between groups and over time while accounting for differences in the age structure of populations.

Due to relatively small numbers, identified trends in deaths may not have statistical significance. Within this bulletin, where a change is viewed as potentially important, comments are included in the text accompanying the figure.

It is important to note that as rates of death by suicide and suspected suicide vary across the country, while this surveillance is not yet based on all of England, figures will be affected by which PFAs are included. For example, if data from some areas where rates are lower are included, while data from other areas with higher rates are excluded, the effect will be that the England rates may appear low.

There may be some change in the contributing PFAs between months, and therefore some variation in the population that figures are based on. This should be considered when interpreting the changes over time presented in figures 1 to 7. This is recognised in reporting by showing the trend with a dotted rather than solid line. Further details to help with interpretation of trends are available in the ‘Monthly and quarterly reporting explained’ section of this bulletin and the accompanying methodology document.     

Production of this statistical bulletin is based on best available data. However, there is a risk of some missing cases, particularly in the most recent months. Any delayed records are included and estimates updated in the earliest possible publication.

Publication updates

This statistical bulletin is published every 3 months. Each new publication includes data for the most recent time period and any additional delayed records for previously reported months.

The July 2025 report includes:

• new monthly suspected suicide rates for February 2025 to April 2025
• additional data for the months prior to February 2025, due to delayed submissions by some PFAs
• recalculated monthly rates for the months affected by delayed submissions
• new data on proportions by method type for quarter 1 (January to March) 2025

This statistical bulletin includes changes to presentation. These are:

• monthly rates now covering the most recent 25-month period (April 2023 to April 2025), rather than 24 months as previously published
• reporting latest quarter proportions only, rather than 5 most recent quarters as previously published

The data tables associated with this report are provided as an accessible spreadsheet.

Further analysis

The following sections present monthly DSRs overall and split by age and sex, and quarterly proportions by method group.

Monthly rates

This section presents monthly rates of death by suspected suicide in England for the period April 2023 to April 2025. The rates are presented as DSRs per 100,000 population.

Monthly rates are presented for:

• persons
• sex as female or male
• age groups as follows:
  • 10 to 24 years
  • 25 to 44 years
  • 45 to 64 years
  • 65 years and over

Between April 2023 and April 2025, out of 8,818 deaths by suspected suicide:

• 6,597 (74.8%) were in males
• 2,221 (25.2%) in females
• 887 (10.1%) in people aged 10 to 24
• 3,251 (36.9%) in people aged 25 to 44
• 3,386 (38.4%) in people aged 45 to 64
• 1,294 (14.6%) in people aged 65 and over

In April 2025, out of 311 deaths:

• 235 (75.6%) were in males
• 76 (24.4%) in females
• 29 (9.3%) in people aged 10 to 24
• 114 (36.7%) in people aged 25 to 44
• 131 (42.1%) in people aged 45 to 64
• 37 (11.9%) in people aged 65 and over

Figure 1: suspected suicide rates in England, persons, April 2023 to April 2025

Source: NPCC.

Figure 1 shows that:

• of the 3 months added to reporting, the highest rate is for February 2025 (11.0 deaths per 100,000 population) followed by March 2025 (10.0) and April 2025 (8.9)
• when comparing the most recent 3 months to the same period in the previous years, April 2025 is 14% lower than in 2024 and 21% lower than in 2023, whereas February and March are similar in 2025 and 2024
• within the reporting period, June 2023 (12.8) has the highest rate followed by January 2024 (12.6), May 2023 (12.6) and July 2023 (12.5) - these months are statistically significantly higher than some of the other months reported

This data is available in table 1 of the accompanying data tables on the Near to real-time suspected suicide surveillance for England: data to April 2025 page.

Figure 2: suspected suicide rates in England, males, April 2023 to April 2025

Source: NPCC.

Figure 2 shows that:

• of the 3 months added to reporting, the highest rate is for February 2025 (16.9 deaths per 100,000 males) followed by March 2025 (15.8) and April 2025 (13.9)

• when comparing the most recent 3 months to the same period in the previous years, April is around 15% lower in 2025 than in 2024 and 2023, whereas February and March are similar in 2025 and 2024 - these differences are not statistically significant
• within the reporting period, rates are highest in June 2023 (20.0), July 2023 (19.7), May 2023 (19.5) and January 2024 (19.0) - these rates are not statistically significantly different to most of the reported months

This data is available in table 2 of the accompanying data tables on the Near to real-time suspected suicide surveillance for England: data to April 2025 page.

Figure 3: suspected suicide rates in England, females, April 2023 to April 2025

Source: NPCC.

Figure 3 shows that:

• of the 3 months added to reporting, the highest rate is for February 2025 (5.5 deaths per 100,000 females) followed by March 2025 (4.5) and April 2025 (4.3)
• the rate for April 2025, together with December 2024, is the lowest in the reporting period - these rates are not significantly different to most other months
• when comparing the most recent 3 months to the same period in the previous years, April 2025 is similar to April 2024 and 32% lower than April 2023, March 2025 is 18% lower than March 2024, and February 2025 is 20% higher than February 2024 - these differences are not statistically significant
• the highest rates in the reporting period are in January 2024 (6.6), April 2023 (6.3), May 2023 (6.2) and October 2023 (6.1)

This data is available in table 3 of the accompanying data tables on the Near to real-time suspected suicide surveillance for England: data to April 2025 page.

Figure 4: suspected suicide rates in England, persons aged 10 to 24, April 2023 to April 2025

Source: NPCC.

Figure 4 shows that:

• of the 3 months added to reporting, the highest rate is for March 2025 (6.4 deaths per 100,000 population), followed by February 2025 (6.3) and April 2025 (4.1)
• the rate for April 2025 is one of the lowest rates in the 25-month period - but is not statistically significantly different to any other reported month
• when comparing the most recent 3 months to the same period in the previous years, April 2025 is 40% lower than April 2024 and 36% lower than April 2023, whereas March 2025 is 28% higher than March 2024, and February 2025 is 17% higher than February 2024 - these differences are not statistically significant
• within the reporting period, high rates are seen in January 2024 (7.3),  July 2024 (7.0) and April 2024 (6.8)

This data is available in table 4 of the accompanying data tables on the Near to real-time suspected suicide surveillance for England: data to April 2025 page.

Figure 5: suspected suicide rates in England, persons aged 25 to 44, April 2023 to April 2025

Source: NPCC.

Figure 5 shows that:

• of the 3 months added to reporting, the highest rate is for February 2025 (12.3 deaths per 100,000 population), followed by April 2025 (10.6) and March 2025 (10.3)
• the rates for March 2025 and April 2025 are among the lowest in the reporting period, and are statistically significantly lower than January 2024 and 4 of the months reported in 2023
• when comparing the most recent 3 months to the same period in previous years, April 2025 was similar to April 2024 but 21% lower than April 2023, March 2025 was 15% lower than March 2024, and February 2025 was 8% higher than February 2024 - these differences are not statistically significant
• the highest rates in the reporting period are in May 2023 (16.8), June 2023 (17.5) and July 2023 (17.3)

This data is available in table 5 of the accompanying data tables on the Near to real-time suspected suicide surveillance for England: data to April 2025 page.

Figure 6: suspected suicide rates in England, persons aged 45 to 64, April 2023 to April 2025

Source: NPCC.

Figure 6 shows that:

• of the 3 months added to reporting, the highest rate is for February 2025 (15.1 deaths per 100,000 population), followed by March 2025 (13.7) and April 2025 (13.0)
• the rate for April 2025 is one of the lowest in the reporting period - however, it is not significantly different to any other month
• when comparing the most recent 3 months to the same period in the previous years, April 2025 is 14% lower than April 2024 and 10% lower than April 2023, March 2025 is a little lower than March 2024, and February 2025 is a little higher than February 2024 - these differences are not statistically significant
• within the reporting period the highest rates were seen in May 2023 (17.2), January 2025 (16.6), June 2023 (16.5) and January 2024 (16.4)

This data is available in table 6 of the accompanying data tables on the Near to real-time suspected suicide surveillance for England: data to April 2025 page.

Figure 7: suspected suicide rates in England, persons aged 65 and over, April 2023 to April 2025

Source: NPCC.

Figure 7 shows that:

• of the 3 months added to reporting, the highest rate is for February 2025 (7.9 deaths per 100,000 population), followed by March 2025 (7.6) and April 2025 (5.2)

• the rate for April 2025 is the lowest in the reporting period, but is not statistically significantly different to any other month

• when comparing the most recent 3 months to the same period in the previous years, April 2025 is 13% lower than April 2024 and 36% lower than April 2023, March 2025 is 25% higher than March 2024, and February 2025 is similar to February 2024 - these differences are not statistically significant
• the highest rates in the reporting period are seen in July 2023 (9.4), July 2024 (9.0), May 2023 (8.9) and January 2024 (8.8)

This data is available in table 7 of the accompanying data tables on the Near to real-time suspected suicide surveillance for England: data to April 2025 page.

Method of death by suspected suicide

This section of the bulletin presents quarterly proportions of deaths by suspected suicide in England by method group for quarter 1 (Q1) 2025 covering January, February and March. Data is presented for persons aged 10 and over.

In Q1 2025, there were 1,308 suspected suicides, with the following numbers recorded for each method group:

• hanging, suffocation and strangulation (724 deaths)
• poisoning (306 deaths)
• fall and fracture (88 deaths)
• jumping or lying in front of a moving object (62 deaths)
• other or unknown (62 deaths)
• sharp object (44 deaths)
• drowning (40 deaths)

Please note that for some suspected suicides more than one method is recorded.

Figure 8: proportion of deaths by suspected suicide method group in England, persons, Q1 2025

Source: NPCC.

Figure 8 shows that for Q1, 2025:

• hanging, suffocation and strangulation is the most common method type, accounting for more than half of all deaths (54.6%) - the proportion for the latest quarter is similar compared to the previous quarter (Q4, 2024) and the same quarter in the previous year (Q1, 2024)
• the second highest method type is poisoning (23.1%) followed by fall and fracture (6.6%)
• drowning is the method type with the lowest proportion (3.3%) - this is lower than the previous quarter (Q4, 2024 (4.2%)) and the same quarter in the previous year (Q1, 2024 (4.9%))

The number of deaths by method group and reporting quarter are available in table 8 of the accompanying data tables on the Near to real-time suspected suicide surveillance for England: data to April 2025 page.

Monthly and quarterly reporting explained

Although from the same source, the basis for monthly suspected suicide rates and quarterly figures for methods of suspected suicide in this bulletin are different. This reflects data quality and approach to data presentation.

Monthly suspected suicide rate reporting is based on the 25 months from April 2023 to April 2025. Reporting for April 2025 is based on data from 30 of 39 PFAs in England. The data points for the 24 months prior to April 2025 are based on between 26 and 33 PFAs.

The PFAs, and the populations within them, that are excluded from monthly reporting may affect the monthly rates. To help understand this, missing PFAs are categorised as having low, medium or high rates based on historical suicides. Knowing this helps understand if missing data is likely to lead to the reported figures skewing high, low or being broadly representative of England.

For April 2025, excluded PFAs accounted for 16.4% of England’s population. Of this population, 1.9% were categorised as low, 9.0% as medium and 5.5% as high. An overview of populations excluded for each month covered in this report is available in table 9 of the accompanying data tables on the Near to real-time suspected suicide surveillance for England: data to April 2025 page.

Reporting for April 2025 is based on 311 records. Overall, there were 355 suspected suicide records received. However, due to data quality issues, 44 could not be included. The data points for the 24 months prior to April 2025 are based on between 290 and 439 suspected suicide records, drawn from between 355 and 515 received records. The overall 25-month period is based on 8,818 records.

Reporting for the month April 2025 is based on PFAs that cover 83.6% of the population in England aged 10 and over. The data points for the 24 months prior to April 2025 are based on between 63.2% and 87.9% of this population.

Quarterly reporting is based on the 3 months from January 2025 to March 2025. Quarterly reporting is based on all records received, but it is not based on all suspected suicide cases in England during the period. This is due to delayed reporting or under reporting by some PFAs.

Further detail on suspected suicide records and proportions of the English population covered for each month are available in the accompanying data tables on the Near to real-time suspected suicide surveillance for England: data to April 2025 page.

Acknowledgements

This report draws upon data from across England supplied by local PFAs submitting to NPCC. Without their collaboration this work would not have been possible.

This work is supported and enhanced by continuing feedback and input from:

• members of the nRTSSS System Leadership Group
• local suicide prevention teams and PFAs

The responsible statistician is the Head of Intelligence, Mental Health Intelligence Network, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID)

The product leads are the:

• Programme Lead, Mental Health Intelligence Network, OHID
• Deputy Director, Clinical Epidemiology, OHID

This report complies with: 

• the Samaritans’ media guidelines for reporting suicide
• the Code of Practice for Statistics

If you have any questions relating to this publication, contact mhin@dhsc.gov.uk. Although production of this statistical bulletin is based on allowing sufficient time for data to be representative, it must be recognised that recent months are most likely to be missing some cases.

Delayed records will be included within the next possible quarterly update.