Inequality and suicide

“Suicide prevention is everyone’s business”, and Labour promised to make it theirs. But the government is failing to tackle one of the biggest risk factors for suicide: socio-economic inequality.

This article discusses suicide rates across the UK. If you don't want to read it, please feel free to explore other recent publications instead. If you find any of the issues mentioned in this article distressing, we encourage you to reach out to the Samaritans, the national suicide charity. You can find their website here, or call 116 123 if you want to talk to someone.

Labour’s general election manifesto promised to tackle the UK’s ‘biggest killers’, including suicide. The latest data on suicide rates across the UK shows that the decline between the 1980s and 2000s has reversed since the 2008 financial crisis, particularly for men. Rates of suicide are highest in Scotland, but are still climbing across all four UK nations. Why?

Research suggests that the causes include rises in unemployment, debt, and house repossessions caused by the recession. Coupled with the loss of social support, cuts to welfare, and spaces for social connection, the rise in suicides seems painfully inevitable given the political choices made at the time. The impact of inequalities on people’s ability to cope and survive - let alone attain a decent standard of living - is well documented. Experts agree that inequalities can increase the risk of suicidal behaviour and thoughts, among other factors.

Inequalities in suicide rates map clearly onto trends in socio-economic inequalities across the country. Regional income and wealth gaps between the North and South are pervasive. Unsurprisingly, these regions are also divided in terms of employment and health, with people in the South generally experiencing better outcomes across both domains. When we look at regional inequalities in ‘deaths of despair’ (the collective term for deaths by suicide, drug or alcohol abuse, linked to higher rates of economic inequality and deprivation), prevalence is highest in the North West (Blackpool) and lowest in London (Barnet). Deaths of despair are also more common among men, the unemployed, people who are less educated, those on lower incomes, and people living alone.

Extensive research by the Samaritans has also demonstrated a link between deprivation, inequalities and suicide. In 2023, 97% of their surveyed volunteers reported supporting callers struggling with the cost of living, and 69% had turned to the service because they could not afford to go anywhere else. In their 2017, report, Dying from Inequality, the Samaritans reviewed the impact of socio-economic inequalities on suicide rates, examining societal, community, and individual-level risk factors. Following the 2008 financial crisis, 20 EU nations experienced a 0.54% increase in suicides for every 1% increase in debt. Deprivation is clearly associated with increased risk of suicide and self-harm, with the most deprived areas experiencing double the rate of hospital admissions for self-harm compared to the least deprived. At the individual level, experiences of insecure work, unemployment, relationship breakdown, stigmatisation, debt, and other adverse life events contribute to a feeling of powerlessness, loss of control and agency, and defeat. This can push people to suicidal behaviour because there appears to be no other way to escape these feelings of isolation and loneliness, shame, and of (feeling like) a burden.

What this research - and suicide research more broadly, as far as I know - does not examine is inequalities in wealth. Of course, the relationship with negative wealth (i.e. between debt and suicide) is established, but there is less evidence about the impact of not owning property, pension or financial wealth. Examining this link more closely could help to identify more effective strategies for suicide prevention, and could support calls for greater predistribution and redistribution of wealth. This is not to say that wealth is a panacea for suicide prevention, but it could help to make people’s lives more ‘liveable’. What do people need in order to actually want to live, to not feel defeated and trapped because of issues outside of their control? While this will of course look different for everyone, increasing access to wealth can help to ensure that people’s basic needs are met, and could protect against key risk factors for suicidal behaviour.

In our recent report, No Money, More Problems, my colleague Jack Jeffrey examined the effects of owning (or not owning) assets on people’s mental and physical health, employment outcomes, civic participation, social connection, and wages:

• Young adults with positive net worth have a significantly higher probability of reporting better general health compared to peers with limited or negative financial positions

• Children whose families possess savings accounts designated for their future education exhibit better social-emotional development compared to peers without these financial provisions

• Assets can promote physical health by increasing access to healthcare, food, housing, and recreational activities: 43.5% of women with financial assets of £1,000 or more at age 23 report "excellent" health ten years later, compared to 26.9% of non-asset holders

• Longitudinal research indicates that adults who had savings accounts established during childhood exhibit significantly lower rates of depressive symptoms by age 25 than those without, even after controlling for parental income and other socioeconomic factors

• Individuals with emergency savings equivalent to three to six months of expenses report 23% higher rates of social engagement (e.g. attending weddings or hosting gatherings) compared to those without buffers

• Individuals with financial assets are also more likely to vote and engage in political activities; financial hardship reduces participation by diminishing interest in politics and weakening an individual’s sense of political efficacy and agency

Understanding the relationship between wealth inequality and suicide should be part of the UK’s National Suicide Strategy. At the moment, there is an understanding of the relationship between financial hardship and economic adversity as a risk factor, but it doesn’t go far enough to question and focus on the broader structural drivers of suicide. Instead, the focus is on increasing access to mental health services, increasing social connection, and providing training to support and identify people at risk of suicide. These are all important and necessary, but to be effective they need to be coupled with long-term, sustained action to tackle some of the underlying risk factors for suicidal behaviour, such as socio-economic inequality and financial insecurity.

If the government is truly committed to reducing suicide rates and creating a fairer Britain, it will need to embed reductions in inequalities - including wealth inequality - into its suicide prevention strategy. Scotland has done this already, committing to “reducing the number of suicide deaths in Scotland, whilst tackling the inequalities which contribute to suicide” in their national strategy. In Wales, the government has set out a longer-term plan to reduce suicides, which explicitly references the increased risks posed by intersecting inequalities. England can and should follow the same path; there is no time to waste.

If you find any of the issues mentioned in this article distressing, we encourage you to reach out to the Samaritans, the national suicide charity. You can find their website here, or call 116 123 if you want to talk to someone.