Growing numbers of teenagers in England and Wales are killing themselves, official figures show, sparking fresh concern about the deepening crisis in young people’s mental health.
There were 177 suicides among 15- to 19-year-olds in 2017, compared with 110 in 2010 and more than in every year since then except 2015, when the toll was 186, the Office of National Statistics data shows.
Fifty-six girls and women in the age group killed themselves last year, the highest number since records began in 1981. The suicide rate among that group, 3.5 per 100,000 people, was also the highest on record, and well up on the rate of 2.1 per 100,000 in 2010.
The suicide rate among boys and men that age climbed to 7.1 per 100,000. There were 121 young male suicides last year, compared to 74 in 2010.
The ONS figures also show that the suicide rate among men of all ages in the UK has fallen to the lowest on record, 15.5 per 100,000 men. Overall there were 5,821 suicides in the UK in 2017, 4,382 of them male.
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Nearest tube: Elephant & Castle underground station (Northern and Bakerloo lines).
Nearest Railway Station: Elephant & Castle
Buses from Elephant and Castle: ask bus driver for Burgess Park. Bus numbers: 12, 171, 148, 176, 68, 484, 42, 40, 45