There were 3,899 rulings of suicide in coroners’ courts in 2015, according to figures released on Friday by the UK Ministry of Justice – more than for any 12-month period since 1995, when the data series began.
While the number of men found to have killed themselves fell to 2,997, 23 fewer than in 2014, the number of women increased by 70 to 902. The fewest suicides were in 2007, when 3,007 such verdicts were recorded, and the number has risen consistently since then, the Guardian reported.
There were sharp increases in the number of suicides recorded for both men and women in 2008, when the financial crisis struck, compared with the previous year.
The total for men was 3,305, compared with 2,348 in 2007, and 745 for women in 2008 compared with 659 in 2007.
The proportion of inquest conclusions recorded as suicide fell to 11% last year after peaking in 1995 at 18%. Males are more likely to die in circumstances that lead to an inquest, according to the Ministry of Justice. Male deaths accounted for 60% of conclusions last year, but only 54% of deaths.
According to statistics, suicide is the biggest single killer of men under the age of 45 in the UK. The true number could be even higher than the official statistics suggest, because some men die in incidents such as single-vehicle car crashes that are not recorded as suicides.