BBC news - suicide biggest killer of young ‘people’

[Daisypod]

Sorry not really feminism but another example of the bbc misleading by omission.
Just watching bbc news and they are talking about tackling suicide and quoted that it is the biggest killer of young people. I’m sure the statistics I’ve seen before are that it’s the biggest killer of young men but not women. Is this another case of the BBC not wanting to add sex/gender to important news items?

Here you go

• From 2001 to 2018, suicide and injury or poisoning of undetermined intent was the leading cause of death for both males and females aged 20 to 34 years in the UK, for all years observed, accounting for 27.1% of male deaths and 16.7% of female deaths for this age group

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/causesofdeath/articles/leadingcausesofdeathuk/2001to2018

I think given how anxious the Putin-apologist set are in our political class are to dismantle the BBC, we need to do a basic Google search before launching yet another pile-on.

Fair enough, I’m the media before it had always been pushed that it was an issue for young men so I was surprised and I suppose being weary with the bbc jumped to the wrong conclusion

Fair enough, I’m the media before it had always been pushed that it was an issue for young men so I was surprised and I suppose being weary with the bbc jumped to the wrong conclusion

This is a bit harsh. Statistics do not tell you everything - reading the whole paragraph it is apparent that death by suicide or poisoning of undetermined intent is three times greater in young men than in young women.

"Suicide and injury or poisoning of undetermined intent was the leading cause of death for both males and females aged 20 to 34 years in the UK, for all years observed. Males had over three times the number of deaths from suicide compared with females for each year observed in this age group. In 2018, there were 1,233 male deaths from suicide and injury or poisoning of undetermined intent (27.1% of total male deaths for those aged 20 to 34 years) and 353 female deaths from suicide and injury or poisoning of undetermined intent (16.7% of total female deaths for those aged 20 to 34 years)."

Source: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/causesofdeath/articles/leadingcausesofdeathuk/2001to2018#uk-leading-causes-of-death-by-age-group

But that doesn’t say suicide is the leading cause of death, it says ‘suicide and injury or poisoning of undetermined intent’

Yes it kills more men than women

but there is a caveat - equal numbers attempt suicide but men tend to choose more violent methods than women and so are more sucessful

I suspect that they meant to say self injury or poisoning of undetermined intent’, to account for the deaths that clearly result from self-harming actions but are not assessed as suicide because intent is insufficiently clear, or in some cases because severe mental health conditions problematise the notion of intent.

There must be quite a few cases of drug overdoses (presumably included in the 'poisoning of undetermined intent’?) where it is unclear whether it was suicide or unintentional.

It is a huge difference, still: 16.7% versus 27.1%. That's 40% more young men dying from suicide than young women.

So these reports are suggesting these deaths are bad, yet so many MPs are voting in favour of assisted suicide. MAiD is now the leading cause of death of young people in a Canada.

Something can be the 'biggest killer' but be no more prevalent than it was decades ago.

Pulling numbers out of my arse the air, consider

1980 : Deaths - 10 suicides, 20 car accidents
2000 : Deaths - 9 suicides, 15 car accidents
2025 : Deaths - 8 suicides, 7 car accidents

As cars became safer, fatalities dropped and 'something else' becomes the 'biggest killer' - even though the incidence of that killer may also be dropping (as in my totally made-up numbers above).

Not saying suicides are dropping, they may well be increasing for all I know, but the clickbait headline 'biggest killer' may not be as startling as it first seems.

I'd prefer to look at the raw data (actual numbers, not percentages) before drawing any conclusions myself.

An inquest will rule on this. So there will be a recording either way.

Older age groups are more likely to die by suicide, but they are also more likely to die for other reasons.

The OP referred to it being the biggest cause of death in young men but not young women. The OP is incorrect.

Undetermined intent means the coroner could not determine if the person actually meant to kill themselves but took action that did end up in them dying anyway.

Eh?

Suicide can be a bigger issue in older populations - more older people could commit suicide than young people - but because more older people die from other causes it will not be the leading cause of death. For example if 10 young people die from suicide and 4 from other causes then suicide is the biggest cause of death. If 25 older people die from suicide but 35 die from cancer then suicide won’t be the biggest cause of death even though more than twice as many older people commit suicide than younger people (number hypothetical).

Exactly