# "Suicide rate in Europe up by 6.5% due to recession"



## Brendan Burgess (12 Jun 2014)

*Financial crisis  linked to more than 10,000 suicides*



Across Europe and North America 

Over 3 years 2008 - 2010 





> Between 2007, when the economic crisis began, and 2009, suicide rates  rose in Europe by 6.5 per cent, they found. The rates remained at this  elevated level through to 2011.
> ...
> 
> Job loss, home repossession and debt are the main risk factors leading to suicide during economic downturns, they said.



I wonder if there are any such figures for Ireland? 

I have heard claims  that "the banks are causing a huge increase in suicides in Ireland". I wonder if it's true.


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## Brendan Burgess (12 Jun 2014)

*National Office for Suicide Prevention Annual Report   2012*


" Despite two successive decreases the rate in 2012 was still 12% higher than in 2007, the year before the economic recession"

"Ireland has the 6th lowest rate of death by suicide in the EU, compared with the lowest rate of 3.9 in Greece and the highest of 34.0 in Lithuania. There is little difference when this data is further broken down by gender. The comparison is less favourable for younger groups. Ireland ranks fourth highest in the EU for deaths by suicide for 5-24 yr olds, at 13.9 per 100,000 population"

It's probably unemployment rather than "the banks" which accounts for the increased level.


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## dereko1969 (12 Jun 2014)

What happened to suicide rates between 2001 and 2008 - is there a correlation between suicide and GDP?

What happened in previous recessions?


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## suarez (12 Jun 2014)

There are multiple causal factors - societal,cultural, psychosocial, psycho-emotional, historical antecedents, alcohol consumption, impulsivity, etc. - involved in every suicide.  It is notoriously difficult to extract meaning from suicide statistics.  Often times, suicide trends make no sense to even the trained eye.
After all, if the recession is such a causal factor why has Greece got the lowest suicide rate of 3.9%, when its unemployment rate stands at a whopping 27.3% and levels of government and personal indebtedness are quite staggering?


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## elcato (13 Jun 2014)

44% of me agrees with you but only 27% of me thinks that I'm right. On the other hand 78% of me likes Coca cola.


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## RainyDay (13 Jun 2014)

I did hear that a big part of the success of a recent anti-male suicide campaign in Australia in recent years was the provision of financial counselling along with the usual psychological counselling,


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## Gerry Canning (13 Jun 2014)

Inclined to agree with Brendan that is Unemployment that is a big driver of suicide.

When unemployed ,Banks do not get paid = money/family stress.
So Banks are more an effect rather than cause.
You could of course argue that Banks had a disproportionate negative effect on the unemployment by their actions.
Suarez; 
Interesting your 3.9% on Greece. 
This sad issue is certainly not simple , but I suppose we like to try to, in some way put understanding on its causes. 
Elcato; 
Yup, statistics on social issues are poor at divining reasons .


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## dereko1969 (13 Jun 2014)

*An earlier period of increasing unemployment in the 1990s saw suicide rates go down in both Sweden and Finland.* The suicide rates in those countries stayed the same during the latest recession, bucking the trend elsewhere.

It would seem that treatment and investment in mental health was the determining factor in those countries.

Interestingly Canada saw an increase of 4.6% in the same period and I was under the impression that Canada had avoided the recession.


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## gianni (13 Jun 2014)

There may be some difference between _actual _suicide rates and _reported _suicide rates. Particularly in certain countries with strong (but fading) links to religious doctrine that stigmatizes suicide.


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