Official Statistics

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

Published 24 April 2025

Applies to England

This report 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 February 2023 to January 2025. It shows that:

• there is no statistically significant difference between the suspected suicide directly standardised rate (DSR) in January 2025 (11.0 deaths per 100,000) compared to December 2024 (9.7 per 100,000) and November 2024 (10.5 per 100,000), with no evidence of statistically significant change in recent months
• the suspected suicide rate in January 2025 in males (17.4 per 100,000) remains higher than females (5.0 per 100,000), both of which remain similar to the rates in the previous months
• the age group with the highest rate of suspected suicide in January 2025 remains in those aged 45 to 64 (15.6 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 (4.4 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 (September to December 2024) remains hanging, suffocation and strangulation (58.5%), followed by poisoning (20.7%), fall and fracture (5.2%), jumping or lying in front of a moving object (5.1%), drowning (4.3%), sharp object (3.7%) and other or unknown (2.6%)

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 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 report 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.

The report also includes suspected suicide method, grouped by category. This too has not been confirmed by coroner inquest and should be viewed as provisional. This data is shown as proportions of all suspected suicides and is presented as quarterly figures.  

Monthly rates data is presented for the most recent available 24 months and quarterly proportions for the latest 5 quarters to enable comparison to the same period in the previous year.

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 official statistics in development.

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 report 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 report 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 with the number that would be expected, based on recent deaths by suicide for that area (as collected by ONS). These exclusion 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 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.

Data is presented for a 24-month period to enable comparison to the same months in the previous year. This is because in England there is some evidence of seasonal differences in suicide rates, with higher rates for males between April and June, and for females in the first half of the year - see ONS data on Recent trends in suicide: death occurrences in England and Wales between 2001 and 2018.

The monthly data is presented as age DSRs to enable comparison between groups and over time.

Due to relatively small numbers, identified trends in deaths may not have statistical significance. Within this report, 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 excluded, the effect will be that the England rates may appear low.

Although report production 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 update.

Publication updates

This surveillance report 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 April 2025 report includes:

• monthly rates covering the most recent 24-month period (February 2023 to January 2025), rather than 15 months as previously published
• new data for the months November 2024 to January 2025
• new data for quarter 4 (October to December) 2024 and removal of quarter 3 (July to September) 2023 so that reporting covers the most recent 5 quarters
• additional data for the months prior to November 2024, due to delayed submissions by some PFAs
• recalculated monthly rates and quarterly proportions for the months affected by delayed submissions

The data tables associated with this report are now 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 February 2023 to January 2025. The rates are presented as DSRs per 100,000 population.

Monthly rates are presented for:

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

Between February 2023 and January 2025, out of 8,381 deaths:

• 6,242 (74.5%) were in males
• 2,139 (25.5%) in females
• 844 (10.1%) in people aged 10 to 24
• 3,124 (37.3%) in people aged 25 to 44
• 3,189 (38.1%) in people aged 45 to 64
• 1,224 (14.6%) in people aged 65 and over

In January 2025, out of 352 deaths:

• 270 (76.7%) were in males
• 82 (23.3%) in females
• 28 (8.0%) in people aged 10 to 24
• 126 (35.8%) in people aged 25 to 44
• 145 (41.2%) in people aged 45 to 64
• 53 (15.1%) in people aged 65 and over

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

Source: NPCC.

Figure 1 shows that:

• of the 3 months added to reporting, the highest rate is for January 2025 (11.0 deaths per 100,000 population) followed by November 2024 (10.5) and December 2024 (9.7)
• the rate for December 2024 is one of the lowest in the reporting period - this difference is not statistically significant
• when comparing the most recent 3 months to the same period in the previous year, January is 13% lower in 2025 than in 2024, whereas December and November are similar in 2024 and 2023 - these differences are not statistically significant
• within the reporting period, June 2023 (12.8) has the highest rate followed by January 2024 (12.7), May 2023 (12.6) and July 2023 (12.5) - these months are statistically significantly higher to some of the other months reported
• except for a higher rate in January 2024, rates from August 2023 are relatively consistent

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 January 2025 page.

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

Source: NPCC.

Figure 2 shows that:

• of the 3 months added to reporting, the highest rate is for January 2025 (17.4 deaths per 100,000 males) followed by November 2024 (15.9) and December 2024 (15.3)
• when comparing the most recent 3 months to the same period in the previous year, January is 9% lower in 2025 than in 2024, whereas December and November are similar in 2024 and 2023 - 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 (19.1) - these rates are not statistically significantly different to most of the reported months
• between February and August 2024 there was some suggestion of increasing rates. However, more recent months in the reporting period show lower rates - this will be monitored

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 January 2025 page.

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

Source: NPCC.

Figure 3 shows that:

• of the 3 months added to reporting, the highest rate is for November 2024 (5.5 deaths per 100,000 females) followed by January 2025 (5.0) and December 2024 (4.5)
• the rate for December 2024 is one of the lowest in the reporting period - this rate is not statistically significant
• when comparing the most recent 3 months to the same period in the previous year, January 2025 is 23% lower than in 2024 and December 2024 is 15% lower than in 2023, whereas November is similar in 2024 and 2023 - these differences are not statistically significant 
• the highest rates in the reporting period are in January 2024 (6.5) and October 2023 (6.1)
• there is some indication of reducing trends - this will be monitored

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 January 2025 page.

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

Source: NPCC.

Figure 4 shows that:

• of the 3 monthly DSRs added to reporting, the highest rate is for November 2024 (5.9 deaths per 100,000 population), followed by December 2024 (4.7) and January 2025 (4.4)
• the rate for January 2025 is one of the lowest rates in the 2-year period - this is not statistically significantly different to any other reported month
• when comparing the most recent 3 months to the same month in the previous year, rates are similar for November 2024 and 2023, 14% lower in December 2024 than in 2023 and 40% lower for January 2025 than in 2024 - these differences are not statistically significant
• within the reporting period, high rates are seen in January 2024 (7.3), February 2023 (7.2) and July 2024 (7.0)

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 January 2025 page.

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

Source: NPCC.

Figure 5 shows that:

• the 3 monthly DSRs added to reporting are 13.0 deaths per 100,000 population for November 2024, 13.4 for December 2024 and 12.9 for January 2025
• the addition of the most recent 3 months continues the trend of rates seen throughout 2024
• rates in 2024 are generally lower than those in 2023 - these differences are not statistically significant
• when comparing the most recent 3 months to the same month in the previous year, rates for November 2024 and January 2025 are 14% lower in the most recent DSRs, whereas December 2024 is 19% higher than in 2023 - 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 January 2025 page.

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

Source: NPCC.

Figure 6 shows that:

• the 3 monthly DSRs added to reporting show some variation: January 2025 is 15.6 deaths per 100,000 population, November is 13.5 and December is 10.9 - the difference between January 2025 and December 2024 is statistically significant
• prior to the reported DSR for January 2025, there was a suggestion of decreasing rates throughout 2024 - these differences are not statistically significant
• when comparing the most recent 3 months to the same month in the previous year, the rate for November 2024 is 16% higher than in 2023, whereas the rate for December 2024 is 20% lower than in 2023 and the rate for January 2025 is 6% lower than in 2024 - these differences are not statistically significant
• within the reporting period the highest rates were seen in May 2023 (17.2), January 2024 (16.6) and June 2023 (16.5)

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 January 2025 page.

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

Source: NPCC.

Figure 7 shows that:

• of the 3 monthly DSRs added to reporting, the highest rate is for January 2025 (7.8 deaths per 100,000 population), followed by December 2024 (7.6) and November 2024 (7.2)
• when comparing the most recent 3 months to the same month in the previous year, the November rate for 2024 is similar to 2023, the December rate for 2024 is 17% higher than in 2023 and the January 2025 rate is 11% lower than in 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)
• there is some indication of higher rates being seen in the early and mid summer months - this will be monitored

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 January 2025 page.

Method of death by suspected suicide

This section presents quarterly proportions of deaths by suspected suicide in England by method group. The quarters correspond to the following months:

• quarter 1 (Q1) covers January, February and March
• quarter 2 (Q2) covers April, May and June
• quarter 3 (Q3) covers July, August and September
• quarter 4 (Q4) covers October, November and December

The data is for the period Q4 2023 to Q4 2024.

Between Q4 2023 and Q4 2024, there were 6,535 suspected suicides recorded, with:

• 1,307 in Q4 2023
• 1,365 in Q1 2024
• 1,313 in Q2 2024
• 1,320 in Q3 2024
• 1,230 in Q4 2024

Data is presented for persons aged 10 and over, using the following method groups:

• hanging, suffocation and strangulation (3,610 deaths)
• poisoning (1,498 deaths)
• jumping or lying in front of a moving object (376 deaths)
• fall and fracture (364 deaths)
• drowning (281 deaths)
• other or unknown (274 deaths)
• sharp object (221 deaths)

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

Figure 8: proportion of deaths by suspected suicide method group in England, persons, Q4 2023 to Q4 2024

Source: NPCC.

Figure 8 shows that:

• across the 5 quarters presented, for hanging, suffocation and strangulation, the proportion is highest in Q4 2024 (58.5%), showing a continuing increase since Q4 2023 (53.0%)
• for poisoning, the proportion in Q4 2024 (20.7%) is lowest across the 5 quarters reported, showing a decrease since Q4 2023 (24.2%)
• in all reported quarters, hanging, suffocation and strangulation is the most common method type, accounting for more than half of all deaths
• poisoning is the second highest method type across all quarters, accounting for over 20% of all deaths
• fall and fracture is the third highest method in Q4 2024 - this is a change from jumping or lying in front of a moving object, which was third highest in Q3 2024
• other or unknown shows a continuing reduction in proportions, likely indicating improved completeness of method recording

For some method groups, the quarterly number of deaths by suspected suicide is small and this should be considered when interpreting changes in proportions.

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 January 2025 page.

Monthly and quarterly reporting explained

Although from the same source, the basis for monthly and quarterly figures in this report are different. This reflects data quality and approach to data presentation.

Monthly reporting is based on the 24 months from February 2023 to January 2025. Reporting for January 2025 is based on data from 27 of 39 PFAs in England. The data points for the 23 months prior to January 2025 are based on between 27 and 32 PFAs.

The PFAs, and the populations within them, that are excluded from monthly reporting will 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 January 2025, excluded PFAs accounted for 25.7% of England’s population. Of this population, 9.0% were categorised as low, 11.2% 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 January 2025 page.

Reporting for January 2025 is based on 352 records. Overall, there were 466 suspected suicide records received. However, due to data quality issues, 114 could not be included. The data points for the 23 months prior to January 2025 are based on between 290 and 440 suspected suicide records, drawn from between 396 and 510 received records. The overall 24-month report is based on 8,381 records.

Reporting for the month January 2025 is based on PFAs that cover 74.3% of the population in England aged 10 and over. The data points for the 23 months prior to January 2025 are based on between 63.2% and 85.3% of this population.

Quarterly reporting is based on the 15 months from September 2023 to December 2024. All PFAs in England submitted some records during that period. However, not all PFAs submitted data every month, and some monthly submissions were likely to be under reporting. Quarterly reporting is based on all records received but it is not based on all suspected suicide cases in England during the period.

Further detail on suspected suicide records and proportions of the English population covered for each month are available in tables 1 to 9 of the accompanying data tables on the Near to real-time suspected suicide surveillance for England: data to January 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 police force areas

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.