The number of suicide deaths per 100 thousand inhabitants. For the sake of comparison between years, data are standardised. Figures from one year are converted to another (standard) year based on age and sex. In this news release, the age composition of the Dutch population in 2018 is used as a standard.
In the first graph, annual figures on suicide mortality over the years 1970-2018 have been converted to match the age composition of 2018 for each single year. Through standardisation, developments in age composition are taken into account so as to enable comparison over time and reveal the real increase or decrease in suicide rates.
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