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Statistics

Rates of suicide among Canadian youth, aged 15-19, tripled between the 1950’s and the 1980’s. Much of this jump was accounted for by an increase in suicides among young males. Since the 1980’s rates of suicide among Canadian youth have started to plateau, with a slight incline observed in the last decade.

Table 1 shows rates of suicide among Canadian youth, aged 15-19, since the 1950’s.

Year Rate Per 100,000 Year Rate Per 100,000
1950
3.3
 2002
10.1
1960
3.3
 2003
10.2
1970
7.0
 2004
9.9
1980
11.4
 2005
9.9
1990
11.6
 2006
7.0
2000
10.9
 2007
8.3
2001
9.9
 2008
9.2
Source: Statistics Canada, CANSIM table 102-0551

After motor vehicle fatalities, suicide is the second leading cause of death among youth aged 15 to 24 in British Columbia. Over the five-year-period, 2006-2010, there were 94 suicides among BC youth aged 15-19. According to preliminary data provided by BC Vital Statistics, in 2010 there were 29 suicide deaths (1.02 per 10,000) among those 15-19 years of age in BC. 22 of these suicides (approximately 76%) were males.

Each year in BC there are typically three to four male youth suicides for every female youth suicide. The exceptions to this was in 2005 when the number of female suicides, age 15-19, almost equaled the number of male suicides in this age group, and in 2010 when the number of male suicides, age 15-19, tripled that of female suicides.

Figure 1 shows rates of suicide among BC males and females, aged 15-19 over the period, 2000-2010. There was a clear increase in suicides among males and females, aged 15-19 in the year 2010. Increases in a single year may represent an anomalous year and should not be interpreted as an upward trend.

Figure 1

Data produced March 22, 2012 by Informatics, KMT, BC Ministry of Health using BC Vital Statistics mortality data. Data should not be compared to numbers published by the BC Coroners' Service due to time lags in receipt of completed investigations and differences in reporting practices.