10 new facts about male suicide in Australia (2025)
We are talking about male suicide as a social issue in 2025 more than at any time in history.
In doing so, there can be a tendency to try and force a greater sense urgency by pushing a narrative that men’s suicide rates are constantly getting worse. While the need for more action is clear, that action needs to be based on a nuanced understanding of the data.
This month, the ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) released its annual Causes of Death data for 2024, which provides the raw data on the number of suicide deaths by age and location. These figures don’t provide information on the underlying factors behind each suicide, but they do provide the most up-to-date insight we have on the scale of the problem nationally.
While male suicide rates remain lower than they have been for significant periods in the past (see “Deaths by suicide over time”), as the population grows, the number of men dying by suicide keeps hitting new highs (see below for more information on the difference between numbers and rates).
There also appears to be an underlying trend in the age profile of male suicide that is missing from the public narrative, with suicide in boys and young men on a downward trajectory, while the number of suicides in men of working age (25-64) reached a record high in 2024. To help encourage more nuanced conversations on the issue of male suicide, here are 10 new facts on male suicide in Australia, drawn from the ABS’s latest release of its annual Causes of Death report.
1. Suicide kills 7 men a day
In 2024, a total of 3,307 people died by suicide in Australia; 2,529 males and 778 females. Men account for 3 in 4 suicides, with the proportion of deaths by suicide that are male being at least 75% every year since 1983. On average, 9 people a day die by suicide – 7 men and 2 women.
2. Male suicide is up 50% and down 7.5%
The number of male suicides each year in Australia has increased by more than 50% in the past two decades, from 1,658 deaths in 2005 to 2,529 deaths in 2024. This is the second highest number of male suicides on record after 2019, when there were 2,546 deaths. Looking at the rate of male suicide, rather than the number, there has been a fall in male suicide rates of 7.5% in the past 5 years, down from 20.2 deaths per 100,000 population in 2019, to a rate of 18.7 per 100,000 in 2024.
3. The figures have risen (and it’s more complex than that)
The unacceptably high number of men who died in 2024 is the second biggest number on record and, as the population of Australia continues to grow, we can expect that number to rise. However, when making comparisons between different years and different groups of people, it’s
important to look at the “rates” of suicide – which are different from the total number of suicides – and are measured as the number of deaths per 100,000 population.
For example, from 2023 to 2024, the rate of male suicide stayed exactly the same at 18.7 suicides per 100,000 population, but the number of suicides increased from 2,479 to 2,529 as the overall population of Australia increased.
4. The Gender Gap is still 3-to-1
In 1930, during the Great Recession, male suicide reached its highest recorded rate in Australia at 29.8 deaths per 100,000 population. The gender gap was close to 6-to-1, with men accounting for 84% of suicide deaths. Over the next 30 years, the gender ratio mostly followed a downward trend until the mid-1960s, when for 3 years (1965-67) the ratio fell below 2-to-1 and female suicide reached a record high of 12.9
deaths per 100,000 population.
By the 1990s, the gender gap had doubled to 4-to-1, peaking in 1994 when 81% of suicides were male. By 2012, the gender ratio had fallen to 3-to-1 and has stayed at that level (or just over) for the past 13 years. As such the statement that 3 in 4 suicides are men remains true, with men accounting for 76.5% of all suicides in 2024.
5. The suicide gender gap emerges in the teenage years
Rates of suicide in children are much lower than in the adult population, though of course, every child lost to suicide is one too many. In the past 5 years (2019-2024) there were an average of just under 100 suicides a year in children under the age of 18. The majority of these – around 75% - were in teenagers aged 15-to-17 years old.
While rates fluctuate, there is very little gender difference in suicides in children under 15. In 2019-2024, there were around 20 suicides a year (47.4% boys and 52.6% girls). At around 15 years old, the gender gap begins to emerge. In 2019-2024, there are around 70 suicides per year in teenagers aged 15-to-17-years-old, with boys accounting for nearly 2 in 3 suicides
(62.8%).
6. The majority of suicides are in men of working age
Working-age men (25-64 years old) account for the majority of male suicides (73%). The number of suicides in this age group in 2024 is the highest ever recorded, with a total of 1,845 deaths or 5 suicides a day.
7. Suicide in younger men seems to be falling
Young men and boys under 25 years old account for nearly 10% of all male suicides, with suicide being the leading killer of men and boys in this age group. Thankfully, only a small number of boys under 15 die from suicide (5 deaths were recorded in 2024). Notably, suicides in this age group appear to be on a significant downward trend, with the number of suicides now at the lowest level since 2012. In 2024, a total of 240 boys and young men under 25 years old died by suicide. The rate of teenage suicide in 15 to 19-year-old males has fallen significantly to 9.6 deaths per 100,000 from a recent high of 17.8 in 2018. Similarly, the rate in young men aged 20-24, has fallen to 16.5 suicides per 100,000, the lowest on record since 2010.
8. Some downward movement in older male suicide
Older Men over 65 years of age account for nearly 20% of all male suicides. In general, older men record lower rates of suicide than working-age men, but higher rates than boys and young men under 25. Suicide rates continue to drop noticeably at around retirement age (65) as men leave the workforce and remain relatively stable until men reach their mid-80s. Men who live to 85 and over continue to be the outliers, recording the highest rates of suicide of any age group. The number of suicides in older men 65 and over has fallen slightly from a high of 459 deaths in 2021
to 444 deaths in 2024. Even in men 85 and over, 2024 saw the second lowest rate of suicide in a decade.
9. First Nations suicide rates still significantly higher
The rate of suicide in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males is 2.5x higher than in non-Indigenous males (45.0 deaths per 100,000 population compared with 17.7 per 100,000 population). There is a significant gender gap with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males being 3.3x more likely to die by suicide than Indigenous females and 8x more likely than non-Indigenous females. These figures are taken from 6 states and territories where data has been made available (NSW, VIC, QLD, SA, WA, NT).
10. State and Territory
The majority of male suicides (around 75%) are recorded in the three most populous States (NSW, VIC, QLD). The Northern Territory continues to report the highest rates of male suicide at 30.3 deaths per 100,000 population compared to the national average of 18.3 per 100,00. Three States report higher than average rates of male suicide – Queensland (22.0 per 100,00), Western Australia (21.9 per 100,000) and Tasmania (20.8 per 100,00). Three States report lower than average rates of male suicide – South Australia (18.1 per 100,00), New South Wales (16.7 per 100,000) and Victoria (15.8 per 100,00). The Australian Capital Territory has the lowest rate of male suicide, 11.2 deaths per 100,00
population. Queensland currently has the highest gender ratio in suicide deaths (4-to-1), while the ACT has the lowest (2.5-to-1).