The Rise: Boys and Girls

The Rise: Boys and Girls

Note: this is part of the Youth Suicide Rise project.

The child suicide rise has so far led to over five thousand 'excess' deaths between 2008 and 2018: over 3 thousand boys and 2 thousand girls.  Even if 2018 was the nadir of the crisis and child suicides will decline as fast as they rose, the total cost will be well over 10 thousand boys and girls.

Five Thousand Excess Deaths

Had the number of suicides remained at 2007 totals, there would have been 3181 fewer fatal suicides among boys and 2091 fewer fatal suicides among girls between 2008 and 2018  -- a total of 5272 excess deaths:

This total would be somewhat higher if adjusted for age demographics (both child population and its teen component has been declining) and even higher had short-term and long-term trends before 2007 been taken into account since male child suicide was slowly declining (female child suicide was stagnating).

If we examine 3-year and 5-year periods, we still find massive amounts of excess deaths among both girls and boys:  844 girls and 1506 boys in just 2016-2018 (nearly 800 yearly) compared to 2005-2007, and 1194 girls and 1952 boys for a total of 3146 in 2014-2018 compared to 2003-2007.

Proportional Increases Larger for Girls

Although excess child deaths from 2008 to 2018 (compared to previous periods) are mostly male, proportional increases were far greater for female children:

Note:

We will look at the combined sex and age characteristic next, and sex ratio after that.