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Suicide among women and young girls is on the rise

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The number of young girls and women committing suicide has risen by a third, according to latest figures.

In 2014, 1,181 women killed themselves: a record number, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has reported.

Of those, 251 were girls aged 10 to 29 (six were aged 10-14). In 2013, this number was 184, according to new statistics from the ONS. Fifty girls aged 15 to 19 took their own lives in 2014, up from 31 the previous year.

Charities said the numbers were a “national scandal”. The records show 98 children under 15 killed themselves in the UK from 2005 to 2014, 59 boys and 39 girls.

Ged Flynn, the chief executive of the charity Papyrus, which is dedicated to the prevention of suicide among young people, told the Press Association: “We have ‘hidden’ the fact that children and young people die this way because it is so flipping painful for us.

“It is painful and toxic to think about it, so we hide it and hope it goes away. Today we can see it is not going away. It is a national scandal and we have to talk about it.”

The ONS figures for 2014 show there were 6,122 suicides in that year in the UK, a slight decrease on 2013.

The main findings include:

  • The male suicide rate in the UK decreased in 2014 from 17.8 to 16.8 deaths per 100,000 population; while the female suicide rate increased from 4.8 to 5.2 deaths per 100,000 population.
  • The highest suicide rate in the UK in 2014 was among men aged 45 to 59, at 23.9 deaths per 100,000, slightly lower than the record high seen in 2013. This age group also had the highest rate among women, at 7.3 deaths per 100,000.

“It’s of great concern to see an indication of an increase in female suicide,” said Ruth Sutherland, the chief executive of Samaritans. “Samaritans’ goal is that fewer people die by suicide and these figures help us to be more targeted in our work and reinforce the need for all agencies, the police, prisons, schools and NHS to work together to reduce death by suicide.”

Vicki Nash, Head of Policy & Campaigns for Mind, said: “We are concerned to see that the suicide rate in England continues to rise, which appears to be because more women are taking their lives. At the same time, the number of men taking their lives hasn’t dropped, despite a focus in recent years on tackling male suicide. More research is needed to understand both these trends and how to reverse them.”