The 11 professions with the highest suicide rates in Australia prove that the stress of a job can literally kill you.
Australia is an amazing country to live in, with plenty of excellent educational opportunities, job opportunities and a high standard of living. In fact, it is considered one of the best countries according to the quality of life, and ranked second in research conducted by the United Nations. This makes it surprising that suicide in Australia is still such a major issue, claiming a couple of thousand of lives every year. In 2009, around 1.4% of all deaths in the country were due to suicide. When comparing suicide rates in previous decades with those prevailing now, perhaps the most important statistic is that suicides in the age group younger than 15 years increased by 92%!
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Furthermore, in Australia, as is common in most countries, the suicide rate is exponentially higher for men than for women. However, there is good news overall as the suicide rates for both men and women have lowered in the country. It is also worth noting that the national suicide rate in Australia is much lower than in many other countries, primarily because of the reasons I mentioned earlier. If your interests lean towards countries where the suicide rate is alarmingly high, you should head on over to the 11 Countries with the Highest Suicide Rates in the World in 2016.
Another interesting fact is that there seems to be little difference in the suicide rates in Australia in rural and urban areas. However, the men in rural areas have a significantly higher suicide rate than women in rural areas. There are several reasons to explain the high suicide rate such as the fact that there is easy access to firearms there (which make it significantly easier for a person who wants to kill himself to pull it off). In addition, there is greater isolation in rural areas, which makes it easier for people to fall into depression, which is the leading cause of suicide. Again, in most countries, it is more common for people in rural areas to kill themselves as compared to those in urban areas, a statistic which has always surprised me, because I thought that urban areas would be home to more suicides, due to high pressure of work, increased expenses and the added pressure of maintaining a social life.
But while research has been conducted on the aforementioned topics, little to no research is present to determine the professions which are responsible for the highest suicide rates. Everyone who has ever held a job, from a sales clerk to a CEO, knows the innate pressure that comes from being responsible for ensuring that everything under your control happens smoothly. Of course, the level of pressure differs from one job to another, for example, a doctor will be under much more pressure to ensure no mistake is made as even the tiniest of errors can lead to the loss of life.
As I mentioned earlier, comprehensive studies have not been carried out in Australia to research the professions with the highest suicide rates in Australia. The most recent study was conducted in Victoria by the Victorian Coroners Court Prevention Unit, and while it only covers the state, we have used it for our ranking, considering the lack of proper studies available in this regard. However, there is also another older study conducted in 2010, which pointed that the suicide rates in the country increased after the Global Financial Crisis, but no information was available on statistics pertaining to professions. This study used the National Coroners Information System, which is a national data system used by coroners throughout the country to identify the cause of death and other such relevant information. We combined these two studies to figure out the professions which have the unfortunate distinction of having the highest suicide rates in Australia. Without further ado, here is our list of professions with the highest suicide rates in Australia starting with number 11:
