Risk of suicide for LGB+ people in Cornwall is 2.2 times higher

The 2021 Census of England and Wales included a voluntary question on sexual orientation for the first time.

The National office for Statistics have linked census data to death registrations and administrative NHS hospital records to estimate how the risk of intentional self-harm and suicide differs by sexual orientation.

The age-standardised rate of intentional self-harm for people who identified with an LGB+ orientation ("Gay or Lesbian", "Bisexual" or "Other sexual orientation") was 1,508.9 per 100,000 people in England and Wales between March 2021 and December 2023, compared with 598.4 per 100,000 people who described themselves as "Straight or Heterosexual".

Compared with people identifying themselves as "Straight or Heterosexual", risk of intentional self-harm was 2.5 times higher for people identifying with an LGB+ orientation, 2.8 times higher for those describing themselves as "Bisexual", 2.4 times higher for those describing themselves as "Gay or Lesbian", and 2.2 times higher for those who selected "Other sexual orientation".

The age-standardised rate of suicide for people identifying with an LGB+ orientation was 50.3 per 100,000 people, compared with 23.1 per 100,000 people describing themselves as "Straight or Heterosexual".

Risk of suicide for people identifying with an LGB+ orientation was 2.2 times higher than for those identifying as "Straight or Heterosexual".

Comparing those identifying with an LGB+ orientation with those identifying as "Straight or Heterosexual", females had a larger relative increase in the risk of both intentional self-harm and suicide than males.

Comparing those identifying with an LGB+ orientation with those identifying as "Straight or Heterosexual", people aged 16 to 24 years had a larger relative increase in the risk of intentional self-harm than all other age groups.

We spoke to Andy Hunt, the Chief Executive of Cornwall LGBTQ+ support charity, Intercom.

They support people in the LGBTQ+ community who are struggling with these mental health impacts, in a myriad of ways.

He said: "People come to us with all sorts of things, you know, if they're maybe struggling around the gender identity or the sexual oriented or both.

"But they can come with lots of other issues as well. It may be that the family are not accepting of them all, bullying, hate crime, all kinds of things.

"So mental and emotional health is definitely on the increase, with alack of provision from the NHS.

"There's waiting list for cams. There's waiting list for gender identity services, which are massive."

When asked about why these mental health struggles are more acute in these communities, Andy said: "around mental and emotional health it's coming to a place of acceptance around your gender identity or your sexual orientation.

"Just because it's 2025, there's, I mean, things have moved on from when I was when I was young, things have moved on and changed a lot, but a lot of the young people still go through similar things that I went through when I was a teenager.

"That isolation, thinking how am I gonna say to it? How are people gonna react to me? What am I gonna become? Because there's still all the stereotypes around that.

" So there's all that kind of added pressure, especially on younger people".

Andy urges anyone who is struggling with these issue to contact the Intercom Trust.

You can access their confidential helpline on 0800 612 3010.

Alternatively, you can find them online at https://www.intercomtrust.org.uk/contact-us/.