Guardian prints correction on suicide rates in younger men

The Guardian today published a correction to its piece on assisted dying, after we pointed out it contained inaccurate figures on suicide rates.

The article referred to concerns about rising suicide rates in men under 40, based on comments made by Professor John Ashton of the Faculty of Public Health in a separate interview in the same paper.

As we pointed out at the time, official figures don't show an increase in suicide rates for this age group.

The Guardian has found that, in its own words:

"Ashton's intention was to refer to a rising suicide rate for men over 40, not the under-40s. The latest ONS figures showed that though male suicide rates for most age groups in the UK were lower than in 2003, the rate for men aged 45-59 was significantly higher."

We've updated our original graph to include the 45-59 age group.

The correction appears on page 35 of today's print edition, while the original claim had been printed as part of the front page story. As we've argued before this isn't ideal - the prominence of the correction doesn't match that of the original inaccuracy.