3303.0 - Causes of Death, Australia, 2016  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 21/03/2018   
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UPDATES TO 2014 AND 2015 SUICIDE DATA
This note was released on 21 March, 2018.

1 As part of the ABS's revisions process for Causes of Death, the ABS updates causes for coroner-certified deaths over a period of up to two years after initial processing. This ensures causes of death reflect the latest available information. Revisions have now been applied to 2014 and 2015 data. As coronial investigations regarding suicide deaths can be extensive, it is a cause of death which historically is more likely to change through the revisions process. As such, this technical note focusses on how the revisions process has changed suicide counts in 2014 and 2015. 

2 Over time there has been a reduction in the number of deaths that are reassigned to suicide through the revisions process. In 2006 and 2007, the first years for which revisions were applied, the number of suicide deaths increased by 17.7% and 18.5% respectively. In 2014, the final suicide count was only 2.0% higher than the initial count. This highlights the increased quality of initial data, which are associated with enhanced coding practices, greater use of documents available on the National Coronial Information System (NCIS) and more timely attachment rates for these documents. In combination, these factors have resulted in more accurate preliminary coding. 

2014 final suicide count
3 The final number of suicide deaths recorded for 2014 was 2,922, a net increase of 58 suicide deaths (2.0%) from the initial count of 2,864. There was an increase of 27 suicide deaths over the first revision period and a further 31 suicide deaths in the second revision period. 

4 There are often questions or concerns raised about the initial causes of death assigned to deaths which are later found to be from intentional self-harm. Deaths which have been re-assigned to suicide through the revisions process were most likely to be coded to an Event of undetermined intent (Y10-Y34) or Accidental poisoning (X40-X44) when initially coded. There are very few deaths which were initially coded to Other ill-defined and unspecified causes of mortality (R99) and later identified as suicide deaths through the revisions process. Minor changes in the recorded mechanism of death can also occur during the revisions process, with these changes usually associated with additional information becoming available in toxicology and pathology reports. 

2015 revised suicide count
5 The revised number of suicide deaths in 2015 was 3,065, a net increase of 38 suicide deaths (1.3%). Similar to 2014, most deaths reassigned to suicide were initially coded to Event of undetermined intent (Y10-Y34). Table 1 shows the total suicide counts for Australia at each stage of the revisions process for 2014 and 2015. 

TABLE 1: COUNT OF SUICIDE DEATHS THROUGHOUT REVISIONS - 2014 AND 2015 (a)
Preliminary
Revised
Final
Cause of death and ICD-10 code
no
no
no
2014
2 864
2 891
2 922
2015
3 027
3 065
na
na Not Applicable
(a) Intentional self-harm includes ICD-10 codes X60-X84 and Y87.0. Care needs to be taken in interpreting figures relating to suicide. See Explanatory Notes 88-96.

6 The number of deaths due to intentional self-harm by state and territory from 2007-2016 are shown in Table 2 below. Table 3 shows the corresponding age-standardised death rates. These tables provide an updated time series that includes the revisions for 2014 and 2015 and should now be used in preference to those published in September 2017. A more detailed table which includes revised suicide counts by mechanism (ICD-10 codes X60-X84 and Y87.0) are provided in the '2014 and 2015 Revisions' data cube in the Downloads tab of this publication. Further tabulations are available on request. Please contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070. 


Table 2: INTENTIONAL SELF-HARM, number of deaths, states and territories, 2007-2016 (a)(b)
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
Males
NSW
459
477
466
520
465
526
523
620
629
614
Vic.
358
429
434
426
401
391
394
509
511
454
Qld
397
440
415
441
438
477
519
498
577
525
SA
167
129
138
157
167
150
152
186
170
165
WA
204
237
218
250
229
271
252
277
293
266
Tas
47
60
59
47
51
57
54
56
65
68
NT
45
31
31
39
38
41
22
33
31
38
ACT
22
30
23
34
23
17
28
28
36
20
Australia
1 699
1 833
1 785
1 914
1 812
1 930
1 944
2 208
2 313
2 151
Females
NSW
152
143
157
154
152
201
195
212
200
191
Vic.
116
116
142
132
125
123
139
149
157
170
Qld
123
113
110
147
140
154
157
160
180
149
SA
38
46
47
40
45
48
51
57
62
60
WA
62
63
61
63
80
96
84
90
107
105
Tas
19
13
20
17
23
14
20
13
18
24
NT
10
7
6
6
6
7
11
23
18
8
ACT
10
6
9
7
10
7
9
10
10
8
Australia
530
508
552
566
581
650
666
714
752
715
Persons
NSW
611
620
623
674
617
727
718
832
829
805
Vic.
474
545
576
558
526
514
533
658
668
624
Qld
520
553
525
588
578
631
676
658
757
674
SA
205
175
185
197
212
198
203
243
232
225
WA
266
300
279
313
309
367
336
367
400
371
Tas
66
73
79
64
74
71
74
69
83
92
NT
55
38
37
45
44
48
33
56
49
46
ACT
32
36
32
41
33
24
37
38
46
28
Australia
2 229
2 341
2 337
2 480
2 393
2 580
2 610
2 922
3 065
2 866
(a) All causes of death data from 2006 onwards are subject to a revisions process - once data for a reference year are 'final', they are no longer revised. Affected data in this table: 2007-2014 (final), 2015 (revised), 2016 (preliminary). See Explanatory Notes 55-58 in this publication and A More Timely Annual Collection: Changes to ABS Processes (Technical Note) and Causes of Death Revisions, 2013 Final Data (Technical Note) in Causes of Death, Australia, 2015 for further details on the revisions process. Some figures for 2014 and 2015 in this table will differ to those published in Table 11.6 of the Intentional self-harm data cube as a result of revisions.
(b) Intentional self-harm includes ICD-10 codes X60-X84 and Y87.0. Care needs to be taken in interpreting figures relating to suicide. See Explanatory Notes 88-96.


Table 3: INTENTIONAL SELF-HARM, age-standardised death rates, states and territories, 2007-2016 (a)(b)(c)(d)
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016(d)
Males
NSW
13.6
13.9
13.4
14.7
12.9
14.5
14.1
16.5
16.6
15.9
Vic.
13.9
16.3
16.1
15.6
14.3
13.9
13.5
17.1
17.0
14.5
Qld
19.6
21.2
19.5
20.4
19.9
21.2
22.7
21.4
24.8
22.1
SA
21.5
16.5
17.4
19.1
20.4
18.0
18.0
22.4
19.4
19.6
WA
19.3
21.6
19.3
21.7
19.1
22.1
19.8
21.7
22.7
20.7
Tas
19.8
25.8
24.0
19.6
20.2
22.1
21.4
21.8
25.4
26.0
NT
50.0
27.5
28.1
31.6
30.5
31.0
18.5
24.6
27.4
31.2
ACT
14.2
16.6
13.1
19.2
14.0
8.7
14.6
14.5
17.9
10.8
Australia
16.5
17.4
16.5
17.5
16.2
17.0
16.8
18.8
19.5
17.8
Females
NSW
4.3
4.0
4.3
4.2
4.0
5.3
5.1
5.4
5.2
4.9
Vic.
4.4
4.3
5.1
4.6
4.3
4.4
4.6
4.9
5.1
5.4
Qld
6.0
5.3
5.0
6.6
6.2
6.8
6.7
6.7
7.4
6.0
SA
4.5
5.6
5.8
4.7
5.5
5.7
6.0
6.5
7.3
7.2
WA
5.9
5.9
5.4
5.4
6.7
7.9
6.7
7.2
8.4
8.1
Tas
np
np
7.6
np
8.9
np
7.4
np
np
8.6
NT
np
np
np
np
np
np
np
18.5
np
np
ACT
np
np
np
np
np
np
np
np
np
np
Australia
5.0
4.7
5.0
5.0
5.1
5.6
5.6
6.0
6.2
5.8
Persons
NSW
8.9
8.8
8.7
9.3
8.4
9.8
9.5
10.8
10.8
10.3
Vic.
9.0
10.2
10.5
10.1
9.2
9.0
8.9
10.9
10.9
9.9
Qld
12.7
13.2
12.1
13.4
12.9
13.9
14.6
14.0
15.9
13.9
SA
12.8
11.0
11.5
11.8
12.9
11.7
11.9
14.4
13.2
13.3
WA
12.5
13.8
12.3
13.6
12.9
14.9
13.3
14.4
15.5
14.4
Tas
13.5
15.0
15.4
13.0
14.1
13.7
14.2
12.8
16.0
17.0
NT
29.8
17.5
17.4
18.8
18.5
19.2
14.3
21.7
20.6
19.3
ACT
9.5
10.1
8.9
11.3
9.3
6.2
9.6
9.8
11.4
7.2
Australia
10.6
10.9
10.7
11.2
10.5
11.2
11.1
12.3
12.7
11.7
(a) All causes of death data from 2006 onwards are subject to a revisions process - once data for a reference year are 'final', they are no longer revised. Affected data in this table: 2007-2014 (final), 2015 (revised), 2016 (preliminary). See Explanatory Notes 55-58 in this publication and A More Timely Annual Collection: Changes to ABS Processes (Technical Note) and Causes of Death Revisions, 2013 Final Data (Technical Note) in Causes of Death, Australia, 2015 for further details on the revisions process. Some figures for 2014 and 2015 in this table will differ to those published in Table 11.6 of the Intentional self-harm data cube as a result of revisions.
(b) Intentional self-harm includes ICD-10 codes X60-X84 and Y87.0. Care needs to be taken in interpreting figures relating to suicide. See Explanatory Notes 88-96.
(c) Age-standardised death rates (SDRs) enable the comparison of death rates between populations with different age structures. The SDRs in this table are presented on a per 100,000 population basis, using the estimated mid-year population (30 June) for each year. See Explanatory Notes 42-45 and the Glossary in Causes of Death, Australia, 2016 (cat. no. 3303.0) for further information.
(d) Age-standardised death rates for the 2016 reference year have been calculated using 2016-Census-based population estimates. See explanatory notes 42-45.