Suicide in the United Kingdom and Ireland

1997 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 300-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
D Lester ◽  
CH Cantor ◽  
AA Leenaars
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Suicide Rate ◽  
The Other ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Young Males ◽  
Suicide Rates ◽  
Male Suicide ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Epidemiological Trends

SummaryThe purpose of this study was to compare epidemiological trends in suicide for the three regions of the United Kingdom (England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland) and for Ireland from 1960 to 1990. The data on suicide rates were obtained from the World Health Organization statistical base, supplemented by data from the statistical offices of the four regions. While the suicide rates in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland increased during the period under study, English/Welsh suicide rates first declined and then held steady. In Ireland, both male and female suicide rates increased, whereas in the other regions only male suicide rates rose. According to age, in England and Wales, suicide rates rose for male teenagers and young males, while for the other regions male suicide rates increased in general for all age groups. Social indicators (unemployment, marriage and birth rates) were quite successful in predicting male suicide rates in all four regions and in predicting female suicide rates in England and Wales and in Ireland. The results emphasize the importance of studying several regions in epidemiological studies in order to identify which trends are general and which are unique to one nation. In the present study, the epidemiological trends for suicide in England and Wales were quite different from those in the other three regions. In particular, the steady overall suicide rate in England and Wales and the rising suicide rate for young males alone differ from the trends observed in the other regions and raise importante questions about the causes of the social suicide rate in these four regions.

The Population of Ireland

1960 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-68
Author(s):  
W. A. Honohan
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Political Change ◽  
The Political ◽  
Irish Population ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Form Part ◽  
Striking Contrast

1. In the year 1800, when the Parliaments of Great Britain and Ireland were fused by the Act of Union establishing the United Kingdom, the population of Ireland was of the order of 5 millions. By 1821 the figure had risen to 6·8 millions and in 1841 it was 8·2 millions. During the following decade the population fell by 1-6 millions to 6·6 millions. By the year 1861 it was only 5·8 millions and thereafter it continued to decline steadily, though not with such rapidity, until in 1911 a figure of 4·4 millions was reached. Owing to the disturbed state of the country in 1921, the next census was not taken until 1926, after the political change in 1922 when twenty-six of the thirty-two counties into which the country was divided were established as a separate political entity, the Irish Free State (later to become a Republic), while the remaining six were constituted as Northern Ireland and continued to form part of the United Kingdom. The population of the whole island in 1926 and again in 1951 was 4·3 millions, that is to say, it differed only slightly in 1951 from what it was forty years earlier in 1911—see Table 1. The population of Ireland has, therefore, remained virtually stationary at about 4¼ millions for almost half a century. The trend of Irish population since 1841 is in striking contrast with the trend in England and Wales for, whereas in 1841 the population of Ireland was more than one-half of that in England and Wales, today it is less than one-tenth; the Irish population has almost halved while that of England and Wales has almost trebled.

Suicide in Scotland in Comparison with England and Wales

1972 ◽  
Vol 121 (560) ◽  
pp. 83-87
Author(s):  
Norman Kreitman
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
World Health ◽  
Official Statistics ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Suicide Rates ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
A Value ◽  
Health Organization

Over 70 years ago, Sibbald (1900) commented that the official statistics on suicide showed Scotland to have lower rates than England and Wales. It seems that Scotland has always been regarded as one of the countries with relatively few suicides. A recent World Health Organization publication (1968) commented on the official suicide rates in a sample of 20 different nations; among these Scotland ranked nineteenth in 1952–4. However, this picture appears to have been gradually changing over the last two decades, and the same W.H.O. publication, citing official statistics for the period 1961–3, quotes a value for Scotland which raises it to fifteenth in the list of 20 countries. Moreover, the Scottish rates and those for England and Wales have gradually come closer together over the last 20 years.The aim of this paper is to examine the trends in Scottish statistics for the last two decades and to compare the current suicide rates with those of the rest of the United Kingdom. All the data quoted are based on the publications of the Registrars General for Scotland and for England and Wales.

British By-elections, 1950

1951 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 474-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard M. Scammon
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
General Election ◽  
The Other ◽  
House Of Commons ◽  
World War ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
To Come

Since the hard-fought general election of February 23, 1950, the narrow margin of Labor's control of the British House of Commons has been tested at the polls on ten occasions. This number of by-elections to fill vacancies in the membership of the House is a normal post-World War II figure (the previous House saw fifty-two replacements in its four and one-half years of life), although it is somewhat under that of prewar averages. In terms of locale, however, these ten by-elections were atypical. Though the overall distribution within the various parts of the United Kingdom was not unrepresentative (six in England, one in Wales, actually Monmouthshire, two in Scotland, and one in Northern Ireland), all vacancies chanced to come in urban areas. Eight of the contests involved borough seats and the other two (West Dunbartonshire and Abertillery, Monmouthshire) were primarily urban in character.

The British–Irish Council and Devolution

1999 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vernon Bogdanor
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
The Other ◽  
National State ◽  
International Treaty ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Belfast Agreement ◽  
The Government

THE BRITISH-IRISH COUNCIL SPRINGS FROM AND IS PROVIDED FOR IN the Belfast Agreement signed on Good Friday 1998. Its coming into force depends upon the implementation of the Agreement. The Council is established, however, not by the 1998 Northern Ireland Act, which gives legislative expression to the bulk of this Agreement, but by an international treaty, the British–Irish Agreement, attached to the Belfast Agreement.The Belfast Agreement together with the legislation providing for devolution to Scotland and Wales establishes a new constitutional settlement, both among the nations which form the United Kingdom, and also between those nations and the other nation in these islands, the Irish nation. The United Kingdom itself is, as a result of the Scotland Act and the Government of Wales Act, in the process of becoming a new union of nations, each with its own identity and institutions – a multi-national state, rather than, as many of the English have traditionally seen it, a homogeneous British nation containing a variety of different people.

Social Union

2021 ◽  
pp. 153-169
Author(s):  
Michael Keating
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Health Education ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Population Based ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Citizenship ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Undeserving Poor

Unionists have defended the United Kingdom as a social or ‘sharing’ union in which resources are distributed according to need. It is true that income support payments and pensions are largely reserved and distributed across the union according to the same criteria. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are net beneficiaries. On the other hand, welfare has been detached from older understandings of social citizenship and ideas of the deserving and undeserving poor (strivers and skivers) have returned. Spending on devolved matters including health, education and social services is not equalized across the union. Instead, the Barnett Formula, based on historic spending levels and population-based adjustments, is used. Contrary to the claims of many unionists, there is no needs assessment underlying it, apart from a safeguard provision for Wales. The claim that the UK is a sharing union thus needs to be qualified.

Modern slavery in the United Kingdom: an incoherent response

2018 ◽  
pp. 27-46
Author(s):  
Gary Craig
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Northern Irish ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Immigration Legislation ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
Uk Government ◽  
The Uk

This chapter reviews developments leading to the enactment of the 2015 Modern Slavery Act in England and Wales and parallel legislation in Northern Ireland and Scotland. It analyses the response of the UK government to growing pressure for legislation, and the failings of the actual legislation put in place, including a comparison with some key elements in its Scottish and Northern Irish counterparts. Despite claims to be world-leading, the Modern Slavery Act has already been found to be deficient in many key areas such as continuing protection for victims and linking slavery and immigration legislation, and is considered to be in need of substantial reform.

Why Has Suicide Increased in Young Males?

Crisis ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 119-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Hawton
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Relative Stability ◽  
Western Hemisphere ◽  
Young Males ◽  
Young Females ◽  
Suicide Rates ◽  
The United Kingdom

Several countries in the Western hemisphere have experienced a marked increase in suicide rates in young males in recent years. This article considers this phenomenon largely from the perspective of the United Kingdom, where rates of suicide in 15-24-year-old males nearly doubled in just over a decade. The possible reasons for this are considered, particularly in the context of relative stability of suicide rates in young females.

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