CW: Children dying by suicide | TL;DR: 107 LGBTQ+ children, of whom 46 were trans, died by suicide in England between 2019 and 2025, figures from the National Child Mortality Database show. Amid heated public debate about whether trans children are dying by suicide, campaigners say we need to "take the politics out of policymaking" to address the factors behind these preventable deaths. Published as part of Under Pressure, an investigative series about the targeting of Trans+ youth in the UK.
LGBTQ+ children make up 16.6 per cent of the children recorded as dying by suicide in England, QueerAF can reveal.
Between April 2019 and March 2025, 107 of the 647 children who died by suicide in England were LGBTQ+. Forty-six of these children were trans – seven per cent of all children who died by suicide.
The figures were obtained through a QueerAF Freedom of Information request to the National Child Mortality Database (NCMD), an NHS-funded programme at the University of Bristol.
There isn't data about the proportion of children who are LGBTQ+ in England to put this into direct context. What we know is the Office for National Statistics found that in 2024, eight per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds were lesbian, gay or bisexual. The UK census found 0.5 per cent of over 16s are Trans+, tallying with a US study that found 0.5 per cent of people aged 13 and older in the US are trans.
These datasets have a clear limitation: we don’t have data about sexuality or gender identity for under 16s in the UK, and we know from existing figures that there is often a large variation in LGBTQ+ identity between different age groups.
"Every preventable death of a child is unacceptable," Lucy Brisbane, a campaigner on preventable deaths, told QueerAF. "To examine how to protect all children from suicides, including trans children, we need to understand the factors that are contributing to deaths and take action to address them."
She added: "For trans children in particular, this requires us to take the politics out of policymaking."
46 trans children in England died by suicide in six years
To try to build a fuller picture, QueerAF also asked for clarifying details about the trans children who died.
This revealed that of the 46 trans children who died, close to a quarter were recorded as having gender dysphoria. In more than half of those cases, the Child Death Overview Panel said that gender dysphoria was a factor in their deaths.
Gender-related distress is a term sometimes used in reporting about trans people, so QueerAF also asked the NCMD about that. The response said that there were three deaths where gender-related distress was recorded in the information about the trans child. In none of those cases was gender-related distress recorded as a factor in their death by the panel.
"This is incredibly sad," Chay Brown, healthcare director at TransActual, told QueerAF. "The data in general, but particularly for LGBTQ+ young people and again particularly trans young people, suggests that more needs to be in place for this group."
"Trans people are being failed," Brown said. "This is especially the case when it comes to young trans people."
The data details - what our FOI asked about
QueerAF asked for each year that the data was collected, up until the most recently available complete year of data. The figures cover deaths between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2025.
The NCMD told QueerAF it used trans as an umbrella term to include trans, nonbinary, gender questioning, gender dysphoric and gender transitioning children. It provided QueerAF with data about children between the ages of zero and 17 where the primary category for their death, as recorded by a Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) in England, was "suicide or deliberate self-inflicted harm".
The NCMD only included deaths that had been reviewed by a CDOP, noting that not all deaths are reviewed – meaning that the figures are an underestimate of the total number of child suicides.
Figures for suicides of LGBTQ+ children are also an underestimate. Some LGBTQ+ children may not have been out at the time of their death, and in some cases a child's LGBTQ+ status would have been recorded using terms that weren't captured by the search terms NCMD used to put together the figures.
Analysis: Just one preventable death is a death too many
Public debate about whether trans children are dying by suicide has intensified in recent years.
In June 2024, the Good Law Project (GLP) claimed suicides "surged" after the NHS restricted access to puberty blockers in 2020 following the Keira Bell ruling - QueerAF
GLP said in the seven years up to 2020, one young person died while on the youth gender clinic waiting list, compared with 16 deaths in the three years after - Good Law Project
But a report by Dr Louis Appleby, the government's suicide prevention expert, refuted those claims. Using NHS England figures, Appleby said five young trans people died by suicide while on the gender clinic waiting list in the three years before 2020 (three of whom were under 18), and seven died (three of whom were under 18) in the three years after - Department of Health and Social Care
Appleby only included trans children who died while on a gender clinic waiting list between 2017 and 2023, whereas the NCMD figures obtained by QueerAF do not indicate whether or not the trans children who died by suicide between 2019 and 2025 were on a waiting list.
Even so, these figures are much higher than the ones in Appleby's report: 46 trans children dying by suicide over a six-year time period, compared with the six trans children Appleby identified over six years.
Comparing these figures with estimates of LGBTQ+ and trans population sizes, it looks like queer and trans kids are overrepresented in child suicide figures.
Eight per cent of 16 to 24-year-old Brits are LGB, while 16.6 per cent of children who died by suicide were LGBTQ+. The UK population is 0.5 per cent trans, while trans children make up seven per cent of the children who died by suicide.
What is behind the figures and percentages, though, is that each and every death is a loss beyond words or measure.
We don't give up on a story easily
The National Child Mortality Database has beaten us around the bush regarding access to worrying and critical statistics about Trans+ youth suicides for the best part of a year now. But we didn't give up.
Despite growing pressure to release its analysis, and having made statements that contained misdirections issued to us, it refused to release the data.
Thanks to our lead investigative journalist, we now have a much clearer understanding of what they know.
Previously, we knew they had data for four years, in which they said suicides of Trans+ young people "comprised very low numbers". Today, Ludovic Parsons' investigation shows they had far more information than even we knew about.
What this story also shows us is that it takes dedicated, complex and nuanced work from a Trans+ journalist to get information to you - so you can use it to fight back.
We're a queer media outlet like no other.
We deserve better, and at QueerAF, we’re not only modelling the change we want to see, but we’re also working with the media so it better represents us.
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