Read New Script’s briefing note for a short analysis of the data and how this demonstrates both the failure of ambition and outcomes from the Protect Life 2 Suicide Prevention Strategy and the urgent need to address deaths by suicide as a public health crisis. 

• There were 221 suicide deaths registered in Northern Ireland in 2023. There has therefore been an 8% increase in deaths by suicide, from 203 in 2022, to 221 in 2023.

• Since 2015, annual numbers of registered suicides have fluctuated, ranging from 195 in 2016 to 237 in 2021. Considering a three-year average trend drawing on data included in NISRA’s recent review of deaths (from 2015), the average rose from 204.7 in 2017 to 220.3 in 2021 and has remained at a similar level since then (220.3 in 2023).”

NISRA statistics on suicide deaths for 2023 have been published this morning. You can access them here.