It’s World Suicide Prevention Day today – for so many families, it is the worst time of the year. It is a national crisis. For men and women.

Here are ten key facts with respect to male suicide in the UK.

(1) Suicide remains the leading cause of death for men under 50

(2) Suicide rates in England and Wales are higher than pre-pandemic. More than 90,000 men (by 2024) in England and Wales have died by suicide this century – enough to fill Wembley Stadium.

(3) More than 12 men every day die by suicide across England and Wales. That is 14 men across the whole of the UK, or more than 5,000 every year.

(4) Across England and Wales in 2024, male suicide rates were three times greater than female suicide rates.

(5) The suicide rate (2024) in Wales is the highest this century (25.0 per 100,000). The male suicide rate in Wales rose in the last year, while the rate in England remained stable.

(6) At the same time, the age-standardised female suicide rate in England and Wales (2024) has almost halved since 1981, the male rate has fallen by just 8%

(7) Northern Ireland (2024) has the highest male suicide rate (28.0 per 100,000) and England the lowest (17.0 per 100,000).

(8) North East England’s (2022-24) male suicide rate (22.6 per 100,000) was almost twice as high as London’s (11.5 per 100,000).

(9) Three times as many men die by suicide in the UK than in a vehicle accident.

(10) In England and Wales (2024), men aged 50-54 have the highest suicide rates (27.5 per 100,000).

A key part of CPRMB’s contribution to the Men’s Health Strategy was to have national and local targets for reducing male suicides – alongside national and local suicide prevention strategies that take a gender-sensitive lens to men in all their different settings – including race, place, class, age and work, or lack of it.

This means that there is not just a focus on “middle-aged men” which has been the norm. More also needs to be done for younger and older men and also men in and from different communities and occupations.

For a ‘primer’ on the causes of male suicide in the UK, a good starting point is this 2022 report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Issues Affecting Men and Boys.

This focused on the fact that men viewed suicide as a “rational” solution to life events they could no longer solve. They did not view suicide as a clinical/mental health problem, they viewed it as a life problem.

The main causes were seen as:

1. External factors (often referred to as stressors, antecedents or risk factors)

• Relationship breakdown- separation, divorce, family court disputes, child contact, isolation and domestic abuse
• Financial concerns/pressures
• Employment/Work/Unemployment (including workplace culture, stress, bullying, redundancy, burnout, too old or injured to continue with “blue collar” work)
• Housing/Homelessness
• Bereavement
• Health and Addictions
• Adverse Childhood Experiences
• Infertility  

2. Universal issues that affect most or all men who take their own life. This sits across the stressors.

• Feeling of failure as a man
• Loss of hope / despondency
• Loss of social connection / Isolation
• Loneliness
• Shame
• Place and Community
• Occupation
• Institutional Discrimination (Ethnicity, Sexuality, Gender)
• Cultural barriers
• Lack of formal support service response, awareness, affordability and availability

3. Transitions, often (but not always) unwelcome, in a man’s life can act as the tipping point into suicidality.

• Loss of meaning and purpose (worthless, hopeless, useless)
• Loss of work (and no alternatives)
• Loss of family
• Loss of child contact
• Loss of relationship
• Loss of home/homelessness
• Entry into the criminal justice system
• Disability and sudden ill-health
• Bereavement
• Sexuality
• Moving to university/college
• Armed forces to civilian life

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#WorldSuicidePreventionDay, #WSPD #WSPD2025

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