Key findings:

• In 2022, 500 people died by suicide in Ireland, 49 fewer people than in 2018.
• The highest number of deaths by suicide in 2022 occurred among people aged between 40 and 44 years at 63 deaths.
• Over the five-year period from 2018 to 2022, 2020 recorded the largest number of female deaths due to suicide in a single year at 142.
• In 2022, males aged 70 to 74 years had the highest crude suicide rate per 100,000 with 25.0 while the highest rate for females was 8.9 in the 40 to 44 years age group.
• The five-year average (2018 to 2022) of suicides in Ireland was 526. Dublin City Council was the Local Authority with the highest five-year average at 54.6, and Leitrim was the lowest at 3.0. 

Commenting on the release, Seán O'Connor, Statistician in the Life Events and Demography section of the CSO, said: “All deaths attributable to external causes are referred to the coroner. As such, a lag can occur as to when these deaths are registered with the General Register Office (GRO), and in some cases they can be registered much later than the 22-month deadline to produce the CSO's Vital Statistics Annual Reports. This impact can be particularly pronounced in deaths due to external causes, which can include deaths due to suicide. Moreover, there may be differences in late registrations, when looking at data for different geographical regions.

For instance, the 2022 Annual Report published on 31 October 2024, indicated that 436 deaths occurred due to suicide. The updated figures published in today’s release show this has increased by 14.7% to 500 deaths. Given the impact of these late registrations, particularly for external causes of mortality, the CSO introduced a range of tables to take account of late registered deaths. 

Headline figures:

• In 2022, from the latest available data there were 500 deaths where the underlying cause of death was denoted as being intentional self-harm (suicide).
• For the five-year period 2018 to 2022, 2018 had the highest number of deaths due to suicide at 549 such deaths, followed by 2019 with 546 deaths.
• Ten years ago, in 2012 the number of deaths due to suicide stood at 585, a decrease of 14.5%. However, late registrations impact comparability.
• Ten years ago, in 2012 the proportion of deaths due to suicide accounted for by males stood at 81.2%, while in 2022 this has decreased slightly to 77.8%.

Datasets related to this release
VSA35: Revised Deaths Occurring (including late registrations), by Sex, Age Group and Year
VSD30: Suicides (Number) by Area of Residence, Sex and Year
VSD31: Suicides Number and Rates, by Sex and Year
VSD32: Suicide Numbers, Standardised and Crude rates, by Sex and Year
VSD33: Published Suicide Deaths and Late Registered Deaths, by Sex and Year
VSD34: Late Registered Suicide Deaths, by Year of Occurrence, Sex and Year
VSA112: Revised Deaths Occurring (including late registrations), by Sex, Local Authority and Year