Suicide: data introduction

The following data on deaths by suicide in Scotland can be found on the National Records of Scotland website.

• Trends and patterns in suicides in Scotland.
• Suicides by NHS board.
• Suicides by local authority area.
• The relationship between suicide and deprivation.
• Suicides in different parts of the UK.

International data

International mortality rates from suicide (not including undetermined intent) are published annually by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in their Health at a Glance report. This allows comparisons between the UK and other OECD countries, and shows that the UK rate is lower than the OECD average. International mortality rates from suicide (not including undetermined intent) are also included in the World Health Organization (WHO) European Health for All database (HFA-DB), allowing comparisons between the UK and other European countries.

Note that when analysing suicide data, different organisations use different conventions and definitions when calculating suicide rates. In particular, some analyses do not combine deaths by intentional self-harm with deaths of undetermined intent as is done in the statistics presented on these data pages. This distinction is particularly important when comparing data from different countries as differing legal arrangements and social / religious attitudes may lead to different proportions of likely suicides being assigned to these two groups.

Suicide and mental health services

The National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health (NCISH) collects UK data on suicides and homicides by people under the care of psychiatric services (defined as those who have had service contact within the previous year). The NCISH is a research project funded by the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA), the Scottish Government and Department of Health and Social Services in Northern Ireland. The NCISH reports that approximately one quarter of people who died by suicide in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland had been in contact with mental health services in the year before death.

The Public Health Scotland (PHS) report, A profile of deaths by suicide in Scotland 2011–2021: A report from the Scottish Suicide Information Database (published 29 August 2023), presents data on deaths due to probable suicides registered with National Records of Scotland (NRS) during the 11-year period 2011 to 2021. There is a particular focus on contact with hospital and community health services.

The PHS report, Suicide in Scotland in the COVID-19 pandemic: A comparison of pre-pandemic and pandemic characteristics (published 30 November 2021), presents data on probable suicide deaths registered with NRS during the calendar years 2015 to 2020. Within this period, 2020 data are compared to 2015-2019 data in order to determine whether the characteristics of individuals who died by suicide during the COVID-19 pandemic differ from the characteristics of individuals who died prior to the pandemic. This report is also based on data from the Scottish Suicide Information Database (ScotSID). ScotSID provides a central repository for information on all probable suicide deaths in Scotland. It links the finalised NRS death records for probable suicides with selected data sources held by PHS. For this report, linked information on prescriptions, A&E attendances, psychiatric outpatient appointments, acute and psychiatric hospital stays, and contacts with Unscheduled Care services was used.

Information on mental health in Scotland is available from the Mental health section of this website.