Proportional mortality ratio (PMR)

proportional mortality ratio (PMR) is a ratio of how more or less likely a death in a given occupation is to be from suicide as opposed to other causes, than a death of someone of the same age and gender in England and Wales as a whole

• to calculate a PMR the proportion of deaths in the general population from suicide is needed. This proportion is applied to the number of deaths in the occupation group being considered to produce an expected number of deaths from suicide. The ratio of the actual number to the expected number is multiplied by 100 to give the PMR
  • a PMR of 100 means that there is no difference in the ratio of suicide deaths to all deaths in the given occupation compared with the general population
  • a value of 50 means that the chances of a death in a given occupation being due to suicide are half that of the general population as a whole, whereas a value of 200 means that the given occupation has double the proportion of all deaths certified as suicide than would be expected from the proportion of the general population