Of 6,162 suicides registered in England and Wales in 2025, 2,533 happened that year, according to the Office for National Statistics.2 That share has held near 40% for three years, so trends compare fairly, but a single year's change is harder to read.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published its annual suicide figures for England and Wales on 13 October. It reported 6,162 suicide deaths registered in 2025, a rate of 11.3 per 100,000 people, against 11.4 in 2024.1 A suicide cannot be registered until a coroner's inquest has concluded, so the count is of registrations, not of deaths in the year.1
The ONS reference tables show how large that effect is. Of the 2025 registrations, 2,533 deaths (41%) happened in 2025 and 2,917 (47%) in 2024. The remaining 712 happened in 2023 or before.2 Overall, the median time from death to registration was 192 days, and a quarter took more than 344.2 The bulletin's text gives the median for England (188 days) and Wales (249) but not this split.
The same tables give the registered rate back to 2001. It fell from 10.7 per 100,000 to 9.0 in 2007, stayed between 9.3 and 10.3 until 2017, then rose to 10.5 in 2018.2 On 26 July 2018 the standard of proof coroners use for suicide was lowered, from beyond reasonable doubt to the balance of probabilities. The ONS calls this an important contributor to recent trends, and the bulletin does not quantify it.1
The share of each year's registrations that died in the same year was 39% in 2023 and 2024 and 41% in 2025.2 Because it barely moves, year-on-year comparisons of the registered rate are fair. The caution applies to reading one year as an event, as the Welsh figures show.
The registered rate in Wales fell from 15.7 per 100,000 in 2024 to 14.3 in 2025, which the ONS reports as a decrease.1 The 95% confidence intervals, 14.2 to 17.2 and 12.9 to 15.8, overlap, so the tables do not establish a fall.2
The ONS now also publishes rates by year of death. For Wales between 2023 and 2024 the registered rate rose from 13.9 to 15.7, while the rate by year of death fell from 13.9 to 11.8.1 For England and Wales together, the ONS estimates 5,626 suicides occurred in 2024, a rate of 10.4, and says the occurrence rate has been fairly stable since 2018.1
National Records of Scotland counted 704 probable suicides in Scotland in 2024, 86 fewer than in 2023. Its series is separate and not comparable with the ONS rates.3
The ONS has not yet estimated how many suicides occurred in 2025, because many are not yet registered. It plans new methods to produce timelier estimates, so how the 2025 count will change is unknown.1 The tables do not say how much of the rise since 2017 is due to the 2018 change in the standard of proof. This piece did not retrieve the ONS breakdowns by region and age, which are published, and it does not use the Scottish 2025 figures, which were not found.