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Information & Background

Rates of suicide among youth in Canada tripled between the 1950s and the 1980s. Much of this jump was accounted for by suicides among young males. Since the 1980s rates of suicide among youth have started to plateau. See Statistics Canada for a summary of recent Canadian suicide statistics by number, rate, age and gender.

After motor vehicle fatalities, suicide is the second leading cause of death among youth aged 15 to 24 in British Columbia. Over the seven-year period, 2000-2006, there were 137 suicides among BC youth aged 15-19.1 Many more young people consider suicide or make a suicide attempt during times of stress and crisis. Each year in BC there are typically three to four male youth suicides for every female youth suicide. The exception 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.

In 2006 there were 15 suicide deaths (5.3 per 100,000) among those 15-19 years of age in BC. Twelve of these suicides (80%) were young males.

Figure 1 shows rates of suicide among BC males and females, aged 15-19 over the seven-year period, 2000-2006.

Suicide Rates Chart

Data produced January 2008 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.

Non-fatal suicidal behaviours are also common among youth in BC. Approximately 7% of all BC youth, grades 7 to 12, have made a suicide attempt in the previous year and 16% have seriously considered it.2

Two valuable websites that summarize the number of suicides in BC each year are the BC Coroners Service (which includes a breakdown by municipality) and BC Vital Statistics Agency.

Discrepancies between the two data sources are due to the fact that many of the investigations have not been completed at the time of the Annual Report's publication.