Suicide and Evidence Seminar Series

Suicide research and prevention is generally driven by statistics, which in the UK and much of the West have historically reported (white cis) men as dying at the highest rates of suicide. In this seminar series, we rethink what constitutes as ‘evidence’ about suicide. We learn from folks researching suicide with populations who are often under-represented in or excluded from suicide statistics. In these cases, we are interested in how evidence on suicide is navigated and reimaged, and what this offers for suicide knowledge production. We also hear in this seminar series from people who are critiquing the statistical status quo of existing (often pathological, white male) evidence on suicide. Find out more about the project here.

Ethnicity and suicide in England and Wales

In this seminar, Duleeka Knipe discusses her team's work at the University of Bristol on the UK's first ever suicide statistics to be disaggregated by ethnicity:

Using the Office for National Statistics 2012–19 mortality data linked to the 2011 census from the Public Health Research Database, Knipe et al. (2024) calculated the age-standardised suicide rates by sex for each of the 18 self-identified ethnicity groups in England and Wales. While almost all minority ethnic groups had a lower rate of suicide than the White British majority, individuals who identified as being from a Mixed heritage background or White Gypsy or Irish Travellers, were reported to die at similar or higher rates, in both male and females. Their findings have significant potential for intersectional approaches to UK suicide research, which typically over-represents white men in suicide prevention.