A REGIONAL PROFILE OF SUICIDE IN QUEENSLAND

A regional profile of suicide in Queensland follows on from earlier wo rk which failed to find urban-rural differences in suicide rates. Suic ide rates were higher in the north of the state and lower in the more developed south. Rural Queensland health regions displayed both the lo west (Darling Downs and Mackay) and the highest (Peninsula) suicide ra tes. Socioeconomic factors correlated with these differences in some r egions. Suicide rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, espe cially the young, were high, and may have contributed to elevated suic ide rates in northern Queensland, but the numbers were insufficient to account for observed differences.