Introduction: The purpose of this paper is to describe the trends and patterns of self-inflicted injuries, available from Canadian administrative data between 1979 and 2014/15, in order to inform and improve suicide prevention efforts.

Methods: Suicide mortality and hospital separation data were retrieved from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) holdings of Statistics Canada's Canadian Vital Statistics: Death Database (CVS:D) (1979 to 2012); Canadian Socio-Economic Information Management System (CANSIM 2011, 2012); the Hospital Morbidity Database (HMDB) (1994/95 to 2010/11); and the Discharge Abstract Database (2011/12 to 2014/15). Mortality and hospitalization counts and rates were reported by sex, 5-year age groups and method.

Results: The Canadian suicide rate (males and fe­males combined, all ages, age-sex standardized rate) has decreased from 14.4/100 000 (n = 3355) in 1979 to 10.4/100 000 (n = 3926) in 2012, with an annual percent change (APC) of ­ 1.2% (95% CI: ­1.3 to ­1.0). However, this trend was not observed in both sexes: female suicide rates stabilized around 1990, while male rates continued declining over time–yet males still accounted for 75.7% of all suicides in 2012. Suffocation (hanging and strangulation) was the primary method of suicide (46.9%) among Canadians of all ages in 2012, followed by poisoning at 23.3%.

In the 2014/15 fiscal year, there were 13 438 hospitalizations in Canada (excluding Quebec) associated with self-in­flicted injuries–over 3 times the number of suicides. Over time females have displayed con­sistently higher rates of hospitalization for self-inflicted injury than males, with 63% of the total. Poisoning was reported as the most frequent means of self-inflicted harm in the fiscal year 2014/15, at 86% of all hospitalizations.

Conclusion: Suicides and self-inflicted injuries continue to be a serious–but preventable–public health problem that requires ongoing surveillance.