You asked
The information I would like is the total number of suicides in the UK in 2020 in different age groups. I would like total suicides in under 18s and total in under 21s.
If possible I would like it to be from 16th March 2020 (start of first lockdown) to as recent as possible
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
We are responsible for the production of mortality data for England and Wales. This is driven by information collected from the death certificate at death registration. National Records Scotland (NRS) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for suicide statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. They can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.
Most suicides require an inquest, where a coroner investigates the death. The amount of time it takes to hold an inquest causes a lag between the date of death and the date of death registration, referred to as a registration delay. Registration delays for deaths caused by suicide tend to be 5 to 6 months on average.
Our most up-to-date analysis for suicide data are our quarterly provisional figures, accessible via the following link: Quarterly suicide death registrations in England: 2001 to 2019 registrations and Quarter 1 to Quarter 3 2020 (provisional). This provides suicides that have been registered from January to September 2020, along with age and sex breakdowns on table 2. Please note, due to the aforementioned registration delay, most of these deaths would have occurred in 2019. This will be updated with suicides registered in Quarter 4 of 2020 in April 2021.
Finalised annual suicides data for 2020 is scheduled to be published in September 2021 to allow time for the late registrations described above.
Additionally, here is a link to Suicides in England and Wales with finalised data available up to 2019, which may be of some use to you.
If you would like to discuss this request further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.