Sixteen Wexford men died by suicide in 2016

COUNTY WEXFORD HAS ONE OF THE NATION’S HIGHEST SUICIDE RATES

SIXTEEN men and two women died by suicide in County Wexford in 2016, new figures published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) reveal.

Since 2000 340 people are recorded by the CSO as having died by suicide in the county.

Outside of the large urban centres of Cork, Dublin, Galway and Limerick, the county had the fourth highest rate of suicide nationally in 2016 - after Kerry, Kildare and Donegal.

18 deaths were recorded in the county, an increase of four from 2015.

12 people per 100,000 of the county’s population took their own lives in 2016, compared to 9.5 per 100,000 in 2015.

Figures for 2013 show 16 deaths by suicide, 33 deaths by suicide in 2012 and 29 deaths by suicide in 2011, the highest figure nationally outside of Dublin and Cork that year.

The male suicide rate grew significantly last year with 21.8 men for every 100,000 dying by suicide, compared to 13.7 in 2015, while the number of women dying in the county fell by half from 2015 to 2016.

A CSO spokesperson said the 2015 and 2016 figures, which are contained in the recently released CSO Vital Statistics Yearly Summary report, are calculated by year of death certificate registration, so may be subject to future revision by the body.

In 1980 two deaths by suicide were recorded in the county, compared to 33 in 2012 at the height of the recession in Ireland.