National suicide monitoring of serving and ex-serving Australian Defence Force personnel: 2020 update

For the period 2002 to 2018 the rates of suicide in serving and reserve males under the age of 30 were 13 per 100,000 and 11 per 100,000 respectively. These rates were similar to the rates in serving and reserve males aged 30 and over, which were 10 per 100,000 and 12 per 100,000.

The suicide rate in ex-serving males aged under 30 was 33 per 100,000, while the rate in ex-serving males aged 30 and over was 27 per 100,000. These rates were not significantly different from each other, but were higher than the rates for serving and reserve males for both age groups.

For the period 2002 to 2018 the suicide rates in serving and reserve males were lower than in Australian males, regardless of which of the two age groups they were in. Over the same period the suicide rate in ex-serving males under 30 was higher than in Australian males in the same age range. The rate of suicide in ex-serving males aged 30 and over was not significantly different to the rate in Australian males in that age range.

Rates of suicide are not presented for females by age group due to small numbers.

Figure 2: Suicide rates for 2002-2018, ADF service groups, aged under 30 and 30+, males

Source: AIHW analysis of linked PMKeyS—NDI data 2001–2018.

Suicides in ex-serving ADF personnel over time

Between 2001 and 2018 there was a total of 77 suicides in ex-serving male and female personnel aged under 30, with the remaining 190 in ex-serving personnel aged 30 and over. The number of suicides among those aged 30 and older is increasing at least in part due to the fact that each year the number of ex-serving personnel aged 30 and over is increasing.

n.p. Not published because of small numbers or confidentiality.

(a) Consists of deaths by suicide in males and females for ex-serving ADF personnel.

(b) From 2006 onwards, the ABS implemented a revisions process for coroner-certified deaths (such as suicides). This improved data quality by enabling additional deaths by suicide to be identified beyond initial processing (ABS 2018). For detailed information see Technical notes.

(c) New ABS coding guidelines were applied for deaths registered from 1 January 2007. The new guidelines improve data quality by enabling deaths to be coded as suicide by ABS mortality coders if evidence indicates the death was from intentional self-harm (ABS 2018). For detailed information see Technical notes.

Source: AIHW analysis of linked PMKeyS-NDI data 2001–2018.

Suicide rates in ex-serving males by age group over time

In 2016-2018, the suicide rate for ex-serving males aged under 30 was 24 per 100,000, compared to the rate of 21 per 100,000 for the same demographic in the Australian population. The suicide rate amongst ex-serving males under 30 varied between 23 and 47 deaths per 100,000 from 2007-2009 to 2016–2018. The suicide rate amongst ex-serving males under 30 was consistently higher than in Australian males under 30, and this difference was statistically significant in the 3-year periods from 2012–2014 to 2014–2016.

In 2016-2018, the suicide rate for ex-serving males aged 30 and over was 30 per 100,000, which was higher than the rate for the same demographic in the Australian population (23 per 100,000), though this difference was not statistically significant. The suicide rate in this group ranged between 23 and 32 per 100,000 over the 3-year periods between 2007 and 2018. During this time, there was no evidence of a significant difference in suicide rates between ex-serving males aged 30 and over and males in the same age range in the Australian population.

The suicide rate for ex-serving males, by age group, is compared with the rate for Australian males in the same age range in the interactive graph below. Select an age group from the menu to display the comparison.

Data underlying this graph are available in Supplementary tables S3.2 and S3.3. See Data for a link to the tables.

Please note, data are subject to change: see Technical notes for further detail.