Higher suicide rates for men

Central Statistics Office's 'Women and Men in Ireland 2011' report showed wide divergences between the sexes in terms of mortality rates, employment, income and education.

EOIN BURKE-KENNEDY

Men in Ireland are four times for more likely to die from suicide than women, and account from three times as many road fatalities as females.

According to the Central Statistics Office’s latest Women and Men in Ireland  study, a total of 386 men took their own lives in 2010 compared to 100 women.

Overall, death rates for males were higher in all age groups but most pronounced in the 15-24 age category where the male rate was nearly four times that of the female rate.

The mortality rate due to road crashes for men (589) was nearly twice that of women (319) in 2010.

However, more than three-quarters of the 238 people killed in road incidents in 2009, the latest year covered by the report, were male.

In terms of health, women were more likely to be hospitalised in 2010, with 343 hospital discharges per 1,000 women compared with 305 discharges per 1,000 men.

Women were more likely to be admitted to psychiatric hospitals for depression while men are more likely to be treated for schizophrenia and alcoholic disorders.

The report showed women in Ireland have a higher fertility rate than women from any other European Union country.

The unemployment rate for men in 2011 was 17.4 per cent compared to 10.4 per cent.

Significantly, the figures showed the rate of females emigrating (37,800) last year was now almost the same as that of men (38,700).

At the beginning of the recession, men were emigrating in much greater numbers principally because of the rapid contraction of the construction sector, a male dominated sector of the economy.

In 2009, men had an average income of €34,317, while the average income for women was €25,103.

Men continued to outnumber women in all national and regional decision-making structures in Ireland in 2011.

Only 15.1 per cent of TDs in Dáil Éireann were women, compared to an representation in national parliaments for EU countries of 24.2 per cent, and a high of 45 per cent in Sweden.

Women accounted for just a third of State boards, less than a fifth of members of local authorities and just over a third of the membership of Vocational Education Committees.

While most workers in the health and education sectors are women most people employed in agriculture, construction and transport are men.

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