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Suicide in Scotland in Comparison with England and Wales

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Norman Kreitman
Norman Kreitman*
Affiliation:
M.R.C. Unit for Epidemiological Studies in Psychiatry, University Department of Psychiatry, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Morningside Park, Edinburgh EH10 5HF
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Extract

Over 70 years ago, Sibbald (1900) commented that the official statistics on suicide showed Scotland to have lower rates than England and Wales. It seems that Scotland has always been regarded as one of the countries with relatively few suicides. A recent World Health Organization publication (1968) commented on the official suicide rates in a sample of 20 different nations; among these Scotland ranked nineteenth in 1952–4. However, this picture appears to have been gradually changing over the last two decades, and the same W.H.O. publication, citing official statistics for the period 1961–3, quotes a value for Scotland which raises it to fifteenth in the list of 20 countries. Moreover, the Scottish rates and those for England and Wales have gradually come closer together over the last 20 years.

The aim of this paper is to examine the trends in Scottish statistics for the last two decades and to compare the current suicide rates with those of the rest of the United Kingdom. All the data quoted are based on the publications of the Registrars General for Scotland and for England and Wales.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 121 , Issue 560 , July 1972 , pp. 83 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1972 

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References

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