All deaths attributable to external causes are referred to the coroner. As such, these deaths are registered after the standard three-month period, and often much later than the 22-month deadline for CSO annual publications. As a result of this, late registrations impact comparability.
In 2022, 500 people died by suicide in Ireland, 49 fewer people than in 2018.
The highest number of deaths by suicide in 2022 occurred among people aged between 40 and 44 years at 63 deaths.
Over the five-year period from 2018 to 2022, 2020 recorded the largest number of female deaths due to suicide in a single year at 142.
In 2022, males aged 70 to 74 years had the highest crude suicide rate per 100,000 with 25.0 while the highest rate for females was 8.9 in the 40 to 44 years age group.
The five-year average (2018 to 2022) of suicides in Ireland was 526. Dublin City Council was the Local Authority with the highest five-year average at 54.6, and Leitrim was the lowest at 3.0.
If you, or someone you know is impacted by this information, remember that support for your mental health is always available. Contact Samaritans on Freephone 116 123, Text HELLO to 50808, or contact Pieta – anytime day or night.
You can also visit www.yourmentalhealth.ie for information on how to mind your mental health, support others, or to find a support service in your area.
If you are a media professional covering a suicide-related issue, remember research evidence shows that certain types of media depictions - such as explicitly describing a method, or sensational and excessive reporting - can lead to imitational suicidal behaviour among vulnerable people. Incorrect interpretations of suicide figures can also have harmful impacts. Guidance is available.
The five-year average (2018 to 2022) of suicides in Ireland was 526. Dublin City Council was the Local Authority with the highest five-year average at 54.6, and Leitrim was the lowest at 3.0.
Looking at the five-year period (2018 to 2022), deaths due to suicide as a share of all deaths stood at 1.6% nationally. Cavan was the local authority where this share was highest (2.3% of all deaths in Cavan was due to suicide) and Kilkenny was lowest (0.6% of all deaths was due to suicide).
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (21 November 2025) published Suicide Statistics 2022.
Commenting on the release, Seán O'Connor, Statistician in the Life Events and Demography section of the CSO, said: “All deaths attributable to external causes are referred to the coroner. As such, a lag can occur as to when these deaths are registered with the General Register Office (GRO), and in some cases they can be registered much later than the 22-month deadline to produce the CSO's Vital Statistics Annual Reports. This impact can be particularly pronounced in deaths due to external causes, which can include deaths due to suicide. Moreover, there may be differences in late registrations, when looking at data for different geographical regions.
For instance, the 2022 Annual Report published on 31 October 2024, indicated that 436 deaths occurred due to suicide. The updated figures published in today’s release show this has increased by 14.7% to 500 deaths. Given the impact of these late registrations, particularly for external causes of mortality, the CSO introduced a range of tables to take account of late registered deaths.
It should be noted, given the number of late notifications, care should be taken when comparing external causes of mortality across time, as this data is more likely to have been revised to take into account the late registration of such deaths. All the figures in this publication, along with others (deaths, by sex, age, detailed cause, and geography) are available on PxStat.
The Results
Analysing the data, of the 500 deaths of people due to suicide in 2022, just over seven in ten deaths were to those who were aged 35 years and over (72%). Examining deaths by sex, males accounted for 77.8% of deaths by suicide, with the remainder being females.
Looking at cause of death by different cohorts provides very different trends. In 2022, a total of 74 deaths of males aged 20 to 24 years were recorded, and of these, 35.1% were due to suicide. This was the highest proportion of deaths due to suicide by age cohort for males.
For females, nearly two out of every ten (18%) deaths among females aged 25 to 29 years were due to suicide.
However, in absolute numbers, the age group 40 to 44 years for males and females had the highest number of suicides at 44 and 19, respectively.
The five-year average (2018 to 2022) of suicides in Ireland was 526. Dublin City Council was the Local Authority with the highest five-year average at 54.6, and Leitrim was the lowest at 3.0."