The economic recession forced more than 1,000 people in the UK to take their own lives, a newly published study says.

The scientific study compared the actual number of suicides with those expected if pre-recession trends had kept on, and estimated that 846 more men and 155 more women committed suicides between 2008 and 2010 than would have been expected if pre-recession trends had continued.

The study also says that each annual 10 per cent rise in the number of unemployed people between 2000 and 2010 was linked to a 1.4 per cent rise in the number of suicides committed by males.

David Stuckler, a sociologist at Cambridge University who co-led the study, said that the number of jobless men jumped on average across the UK by 25.6 per cent per annum between 2008 and 2010, a jump associated with an annual rise of 3.6 per cent in male suicides.

Speaking on the topic, Stuckler said, "Much of men's identity and sense of purpose is tied up with having a job. It brings income, status, importance..."

The researchers used data from the National Clinical & Health Outcomes Database and the Office of National Statistics to reach to the abovementioned conclusions. The study published in the most recent issue of British Medical Journal (BMJ).

Separately, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that almost one million people commit suicides every year.