Reported suicide deaths in London have fallen from 8.3 to 7.3 deaths per 100, 000, according to data revealed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) last week.
This is the first time the annual figure has dropped since 2021.
The latest data for 2025 showed that London recorded 7.3 suicide deaths per 100,000.
In 2021, the number of reported suicide deaths was 6.6. This figure rose to seven in 2022, then rose again to 7.3 the following year.
Dr Moore is on the advisory board of Thrive LDN, a London-based group which brings together around 70 organisations, including NHS trusts, mental health charities, and individuals with lived and living experience of suicide.
He said: “There’s something very different about London. We don’t actually know for sure what is making that difference.
“But we know that the suicide rate goes up if you get more rural and that’s thought to be due to isolation and access to means. There are more firearms and so on in the countryside.”
“And the numbers get higher the more north you go. And that’s difficult because there’s a lot of deprivation in the North of England, certainly, but there’s also deprivation around London.”
According to Trussell Trust data, food bank use in London was at a record high last year.
The data, which comprised the number of suicide deaths registered across England and Wales, represents the deaths of those aged 10 and older.
These figures are for deaths registered, rather than deaths occurring in each calendar year. Because of the length of time it takes to complete a coroner’s inquest, it can take months or even years for a suicide to be registered.
The largest number of ASMR was in the East Midlands, where with the ASMR for suicide deaths registered decreasing from 12.1 suicide deaths per 100,000 people in 2024, to 10.2 in 2025.
There were decreases in the age-standardised mortality rates (ASMR) for suicide deaths registered in five of the other eight English regions between 2024 and 2025, including London.
This year’s data showed London to be the UK region with the lowest rate of suicide deaths, which is consistent with last year’s rankings.
The North East region remained the region with the highest number of suicide death registered, with 14 out of every 100, 000.
There is some year-on-year variation on whether the North East or the North West has the highest amount of reported suicide deaths, but overall, this figure tends to be significantly larger than the number of London deaths.
There is a noticeable disparity between London (7.3) and the East of England (10), which had the second lowest number of suicide deaths.
London’s figure of 7.3 is lower than the average number of suicide deaths in England, which is 11.
“We know that if people are in communities, they get a lot more support and London is a very diverse community ethnically, so a lot of those ethnicities have communities themselves,” Dr Moore said.
He said a lot of work has been done on railways, which are “cluster spots” for suicide deaths, to reduce the number of suicides, including staff training and safeguarding measures.
As part of a Thrive LDN initiative and partnership with the London Underground, staff at 25 tube stations now have ‘grab bags’ – bright orange bags which contain leaflets, flyers, and mental health resources – to help staff handle conversations with vulnerable people.
The ONS’s London data can also be broken down based on the gender.
It shows there were 310 female deaths, 836 male deaths and 912 uncategorised deaths in the last year.
All the percentages have been rounded to the nearest decimal place.
The graph indicates that over 2/3 (73%) of the categorisable deaths were male.
This was an overarching similarity in the data – in all the deaths occurring in the Outer Boroughs, Inner Boroughs and London Boroughs, the percentage of confirmed male suicide deaths was consistently higher than the female number of deaths, coming in at between 72.6 and 73.2%.
Dr Moore said: “This is a complicated topic. The simple answer is that men are activists and not talkers. And what they tend to do is to take drastic action if they’re feeling low, and women are much more inclined to talk to other people.
“All the evidence points to the fact that speaking to somebody and being open about whether they’re being suicidal helps take people down from that peak of feeling that they want to do something about it.”
“So one of the things they’re working hard on in London – sports clubs, football grounds, men’s clubs, barbers – is trying to get men to talk about their feelings.”
Ealing borough had the highest number of suicide deaths at 58, as based on the person’s usual residence as provided by the informant upon registration in England and Wales.
Havering, Camden, and Wandsworth were also high on the list, with 54, 48 and 46 respectively.
At the other end of the spectrum, the City of London reported four suicide deaths this year.
But this data does not take into account the estimated population of people in London.
While the City of London reported four suicide deaths this year, they have a much smaller population of 15, 631, according to Statistica data, in comparison with Wandsworth’s 339,859 estimated population and 46 deaths.
Dr Moore said: “There are variations across the boroughs, but by the time you’ve taken population size into account, there is nothing statistically significant.
“It’s between 10 and 11 deaths per week on average in London, and statistically that’s quite low. Therefore, one or two happening somewhere can really skew those numbers. So we have to be careful about mis-interpreting low numbers.”
For any young person who wants to understand more about how they are feeling, get information about a mental health condition or find support, YoungMind has a range of guides which can help. There is also a Parents Helpline which provides advice for your child or young person’s mental health.
If you have found any of the information in this article distressing, you can call Samaritans for free on 116 123 (UK and Ireland).
Featured image credit: Thrive London
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