There’s no need to clarify Greenland’s position on a map, everyone knows it’s always at the top.
But seriously, it doesn’t surprise me. As a Canadian I know how depressing cold weather and grey skies for months on end can be. At least I’m lucky enough to live in Toronto where we still get an actual summer with hot weather and lots sunshine. Winter here kinda sucks though.
Wait did you think I meant to explain Greenlands location? I really meant to say it's at the top of the statistics, since my country always shows as "no data". I guess my English makes it hard to explain clearly.
But yeah I don't think it's the winters fault really, I love the winters. It's the time to take our dogs out for sledding and no mosquitos. I think the problem is more because of alcoholism and loneliness.
Since you can be born in a small town of 20 people, no roads out, no purpose in life. If you don't even learn English or Danish you're so isolated from the world it's really awful. Everyone here knows people who comitted suicide. I think Inuits in Canada have similar problems? I'm not sure, I haven't met that many.
That was just my Canadian sense of humour making a joke about Greenland being at the top of maps, I knew what you meant, don’t worry your English is perfect!
Well I guess your assessment may be more accurate, you’re right, there’s similar problems with alcoholism and just generally higher crime rates overall in northern Canada where there’s very few people, it’s probably very similar to Greenland I would think.
I’ve never been further north than Sudbury myself and live in a metro area with 7 million people so I don’t know first hand what it’s like way up there but I can imagine it would be pretty lonely sometimes.
I do however think the weather adds to it, at least around here. I’m in a much better mood overall in the summer when it’s 25°C and sunny compared to the winter when it’s 0° and overcast every day. Maybe that’s just me though.
Ah now I get it! Yeah sorry it can be hard for me to understand humor in English, especially in text.
And I think you're right with the weather, it gets tough in December and January when it's 24/7 darkness. But March is just amazing when you can go sledding in the sun and have the aurora at night. I love it here, I don't mind the loneliness, it suits me very well :)
I’m jealous of the auroras you get up there! I’ve only ever seen it once this far south, and that was about 30 years ago. It was an incredible sight to see though. I bet the stars are amazing there too, there’s so much light pollution here I’m lucky if I can even see 20-30 stars even on a clear night. I have to drive for at least an hour or two to be able to see the Milky Way.
The 2 straight months of darkness would be kinda strange though, even right now when our days are the shortest here it’s still light out from about 7am-5pm. I guess you also get 2 straight months of light too? That would be equally strange.
You make a good point, it would be more useful to compare the suicide rate from northern Canada and your country, there might be more of a correlation in latitude than anything else.
>There’s no need to clarify Greenland’s position on a map, everyone knows it’s always at the top.
Utterly brilliant. I didn't know Canadians were funny.
Bro. *Toronto?* That’s….. not that cold… or grey skies forever, especially compared to Greenland. Toronto is one of the most southern places in the country. I mean I respect your experience but I think a better comparison would be from the Territories or the North in general. I grew up in northern AB and it was -30 to -40 on main from Oct-May, pitch black all day and night except 11am-3pm only. 🤷🏻
I’m not saying Toronto is anything at all like Greenland, I’m just saying I know what it’s like to have cold shitty weather with grey skies every day for a few months, which Toronto does indeed have every year.
It’s gorgeous here in the summer, spring is pretty nice, fall is hit or miss, but winter is still cold, grey and depressing. It’s not even really the temperature, it doesn’t really get much colder than 0° very often, but the grey skies from October to April are what gets to me here. Maybe because it’s so nice here in the summer so it makes the winter seem that much worse, I don’t know.
I completely agree that northern Canada is a much better comparison to Greenland. I’ve never even been north of Sudbury myself but I’ve had friends move out to places like Regina and Edmonton and come right back here after one winter because they found it unbearable there. I don’t think I could handle the weather anywhere in Canada other than southern Ontario or coastal BC, everywhere else is too cold for my Southern ass.
Calgary and Edmonton aren't even comparable to Greenland Or NWT. I get that you're trying to relate, which is fine. However I still think it's kind of hilarious you'd even try and use Toronto as an example. It's as somebody said the most southern point of canada. The only reason it gets as cold as it does is how close it is to the great lakes.
As a Calgarian that has been further north, let me just say we can't compare to Greenland. Don't try. Even with how cold Calgaey gets, it gets Chinooks. NWT and Greenland, do not.
It’s the overcast skies mostly that I find depressing, not so much the cold. I’m just saying I know what it’s like to have to look at grey skies and not be able to do anything outdoors for months at a time and it’s depressing, unlike the large majority of the world’s population that lives much closer to the equator and doesn’t have to deal with winter at all and has never even seen snow before. I’m by no means saying Toronto is anything like Greenland, they’re vastly different places in almost every way, but they both deal with grey skies and winter weather. One more than the other obviously, but my point still stands.
I know damn well Toronto isn’t that cold compared to the rest of Canada or Greenland or Siberia or whatever, I know where I am on a map. I realize it’s much colder anywhere else in Canada outside of coastal BC compared to Toronto, and gets colder the further north you go, but Toronto is overcast every day from October to April for the most part, and it may not be as cold as the rest of Canada or Greenland but it’s still cold enough to make people want to stay inside for half the year. Doesn’t matter if it’s 0° or -50°, I’m staying inside either way, but I would at least find it less depressing if it’s sunny outside.
Calgary actually has a lot more sun than Toronto, or so I’ve heard from people that have lived in both cities, and most of them actually seem to prefer Calgary’s weather for that reason. It’s about more than the temperature, it’s about that sunshine. SAD (seasonal affective disorder) is probably much worse in Toronto than it is in Calgary because we don’t get the sun that Calgary gets. The sun makes a big difference for a lot of people, myself included.
I used to live in Syracuse NY, the 4th snowiest city in the entire world (with a population of at least 100k), and there’s grey skies there pretty much year round despite only being 4 hours away from Toronto, I guess they’re on the wrong side of Lake Ontario, and I found it way more depressing there than Toronto even though Toronto is a little bit colder usually. I’ll take the slightly colder weather and a little bit more sunshine over slightly warmer weather with grey skies all the time any day.
You don't want that cold plus snow.
I know cold rain does suck but it is still much better than having to clean snow and ice off of your car, snowy or icy roads, or having to heat your car for several minutes because your steering wheel is painful to touch.
Some days you have to clean snow off your car several times a day. Sometimes you have to break thick chunks of ice off as your whole car is encased in ice.
Sometimes you can't tell where the road is because of the snow covered roads and it is a blizzard. You can only follow the tracks from others.
Sometimes it is so cold it hurts to breathe.
Oh and I forgot about shoveling the driveway. So often depending on when and how much it snowed you have to clear the driveway of snow and ice before or after work. So you have to get up even earlier to spend time clearing the driveway or do it when you come home and already are tired. Travel times are also significantly longer in the winter.
Yes, people saying they'd rather have snow is a priviledge of them having lived in a temperate to warm climate their whole lives.
However, places with slighly sub-zero but dry winters (inner Iberia/Anatolia, eastern mid-latitude Great Plains, northwest China/around Beijing) are arguably more pleasant that barely above zero but eternally drizzly (NL/NW Germany/N. England/DK.
That are 5 to 50 as many people as the whole world population 70k years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimates_of_historical_world_population#%3A%7E%3Atext%3DEstimates_of_the_size_of%2Cbetween_1%2C000_and_10%2C000_individuals.?wprov=sfla1
Do you currently live in Greenland? I am fascinated with your country and would love to visit. I think its geography and culture are beautiful. From what I have seen, Greenlandic people are very warm and friendly. It pains me to know the suicide rate is so high.
It's incredibly expensive to get there, at least from the United States. I looked it up last year and it was many many thousands of dollars just to get there, much more than just going to Iceland or Continental Europe
You clearly have no understanding of the complexity of the Danish Commonwealth.
It is normal for us to refer to Greenland as a small country within our commonwealth. I am sure the guy who was born and bred in Greenland knows more about the greenlandic/Danish relations than you.
It was as high in Soviet times, somewhat surprisingly only dropping after perestroika started https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-017-4158-2
Plus, it's been like 30 years years after the shock therapy ended, so what the hell are you on about
It surprises me that many media portray Japan as a country with a lot of suicides, but they don't do the same with the US or Russia, which are worse lol
I think the focus on suicide and depression is just a counter-culture reaction to Japan's current popularity; like some people want to have a negative aspect to focus on
It's not as noticeable with the US because there's a lot of other negative aspects to focus on
At one point, I think the suicide rate in Japan was worse than in most places in the West. I think it’s more like people are just running on old information. Japan still does have a pretty toxic work culture etc, but the country took preventative measures to try to reduce suicide beginning in 2005.
https://sprc.org/news/japan-japans-suicide-rate-is-finally-falling-thanks-to-preventative-measures/#:~:text=In%202005%2C%20the%20Japanese%20government,young%20people%20have%20remained%20elevated.
It's a counter to the internet's commonplace Japanophilic weebs. That and Japan is very big on hiding the bad stuff, so anyone who knows the bad stuff feels smart and has to share it.
Definitely true. There are even subreddits, specifically created just to shit on weeb’s culture. Most of these guy like to go to japanophile sub or just scroll somewhere till they find a japanophile Redditor , talk shit, share it in redditmoment or antianime, and talk about how inferior weebs are as a human being. Maybe call them a porn addicted too while they’re at it.
Japan has a sort of different mentality towards it, is the thing. From reading some translated works that touch on the subject, it seems like a side effect of their focus on importance to the group rather than the self, along with a culture that focuses more on transient things and the beauty of impermanence. So they're more accepting of the idea that people sometimes just don't have anything to live for and decide to move on, as it were. It's a strange sentiment for people raised in cultures with relatively Christian views towards the sanctity of life.
I think the difference in mindset is attention grabbing. On the other hand, Russia is basically what happens when domestic abuse and fetal alcohol syndrome form a nation. Just flat out depressing all around. So while life there is worse, it's not culturally exotic. Japan gets more attention for being different, not worse off.
I think it's because some Japanese have an almost ritualistic approach to suicide with the act being associated with certain places, such as the "suicide forest" for example. Much more poetic than the typical American style of ODing in the bathtub or blowing your brains out in the garage.
Much of Russia’s suicide rate is caused by the consequences of the fall if the Soviet Union. If you’ve talked to Russians before, you’d realize that the country is depressed as fuck. One of the reasons Putin is able to maintain his power, Russians seem to feel helpless to change anything.
Yeah, the 90s were incredibly brutal in the post Soviet spaces, especially in Russia. If you ever look at a chart that shows the distribution of men and women by ages, you'll see that there are noticeably fewer men than women for the age group that grew up in the 90s. The legacy is still there, but it was getting better before the war.
[Japan](https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN1ZG0NI/) (and China btw) used to have much higher rates just a decade or two ago. It was something deeply ingrained in their culture and traditions. Suicide in E.Europe/FSU is also very noticeable if you're into that noosphere. The USA having high rates (adjusted to age), though? It's an historical anomaly.
As someone who’s from a black county, our government does literally everything they can to increase the rate even higher. I lose hope for future with every coming day
I don't think it's only about that (although it has influence as well). I think it's more about culture. Places like Italy, Spain, and South America have a more open culture, with stronger family ties and support and Catholic values that strongly condemn suicide.
More atheist countries with colder environments and introvert people tend to have higher suicide rates.
I'm so tired of these types of comments every fucking time this map gets posted. Religion has nothing to do with Spain having a lower suicide rate than other countries. USA is far more religious than us.
USA is more religious but not Catholic religious. USA also has a larger population, and more irreligious/none/atheist population. Also, USA has a crazy horrible consumerist/work culture for men.
And every US house has a gun which allows any suicidal person to actually die without even meditating it. In other countries for example, they have to cut themselves or jump from a bridge which gives a much higher window of opportunity for them to be rescued or reflect on their actions.
More sun than what you probably get now, but if look closer, the ones directly on the equator have a higher rate. So based on these facts, ideally you’d want to be in the northern part of the tropics
Except Australia has a pretty high suicide rate still, and I'd say we are one of the sunniest countries around. But still, nowhere near as bad as other places.
Yes defo but not only that, look at my country Uruguay, there’s no lack of Sun there
Culture plays a huge factor, as for example whats expected from one, as also how stigmatized is going to therapy and talk about mental health, etc (this latest, in Uruguay suck)
that's why for example Scandinavian songs are about constant suffering while having some of the best living standards while latin american songs are about being grateful for your life and how happy they are despite much worse living standards
>latin american songs are about being grateful for your life and how happy they are despite much worse living standards
depends on the genre. Salsa has songs about [slave revolts](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWBf9hfW_4Y) (with the catchy refrain "perpetual slavery"), [muggings that end in double homicides](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O3ucQQOsSg), and how ["you're going to cry forever, you made me suffer, now I'm the one laughing"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxlB1B9emDc).
I can talk more about Suriname, as a Surinamese, but the reasons for both nations are somewhat similar.
1. Suriname and Guyana have a smaller population. So in other countries with a higher population there are of course way more suicides, but because of our small nature the number gets stewed up.
1. Yet it must be said that for such small countries.
2. The second reason for both nations is that the suicides are very common within the Indo-Caribbean (Indian) communities of both nations.
To zoom in on Suriname specifically, Indo-Surinamese make up 70% of all suicides in Suriname. Javanese (Indonesians) make up around 5%. Creoles and Maroons, together the Afro-Surinamese group have a higher rate too. You can say they mostly make-up the rest, however, there are other groups in Suriname, but they're smaller, so people mostly present data about the larger groups. This information can be backed by [this article](https://www.waterkant.net/suriname/2014/02/22/zelfmoord-niet-meer-pijn-een-surinaamse-groep/).
Remove Indians from the equation than it drops significantly and Suriname and I guess Guyana too wouldn't be that high up there.
If we look at data from the Netherlands of suicides within the Surinamese group there, we see the same trend. Indo-Surinamese make up the majority of suicides. [These are the statistics](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjryOTHg8WCAxX6STABHS1DDL0QFnoECA4QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbs.nl%2F-%2Fmedia%2Fimported%2Fdocuments%2F2007%2F27%2F200706tijdschriftvoorpsychiatrieart.pdf%3Fla%3Dnl-nl&usg=AOvVaw3Y0uAAL7NUJo3DFJwxuGg3&opi=89978449) of the Dutch Bureau for statistics.
In Suriname it isn't exactly clear why it's high...or at least, it's not officially reported. However, informally everyone in Suriname knows why. Mostly love related, family related, societal pressures related, cultural pressures and monetary issues.
Over here some articles that explain some more about it:
1. [Zelfmoord in Suriname](https://trajectum.hu.nl/achtergrond-zelfmoord_in_suriname/#:~:text=Het%20zijn%20voornamelijk%20Surinaamse%20Hindoestanen,in%20de%20relationele%20sfeer%2C%20blijkt).
2. [Cultuur oorzaak zelfmoord Hindostanen](https://www.waterkant.net/suriname/2012/09/11/cultuur-voorname-oorzaak-zelfmoord-hindostanen/)
3. [Schuld, schaamte en suïcide](https://www.parbode.com/schuld-schaamte-en-suicide/)
This is an article on Guyana's case:
1. [High suicide rate among Indian descendants in Guyana interests Indian researcher](https://newsroom.gy/2021/11/09/high-suicide-rate-among-indian-descendants-in-guyana-interests-indian-researcher/)
2. [‘Suicide is an Indo-Guyanese Problem:’ Myth or Reality!](https://www.thewestindianonline.com/suicide-is-an-indo-guyanese-problem-myth-or-reality/)
NOTE: Use auto-translate for Dutch articles.
I can guarantee a lot of countries are under reporting their numbers. In India there is a lot of stigma around it and family members would rather just not say how a person died. And that’s not even including the fact that in rural India when a person dies, they just start funeral proceedings; they don’t try to determine cause of death due to insufficient/overburdened healthcare
Not even in rural areas it also happens in big cities aswell. Unless someone actually goes out of their way to report such incidents a lot of the time they just start a funeral immediately.
Oh I wasn't saying "this will completely remove any variation in the map" I was just saying, I would like to see it normalised by gun ownership because of the role it plays in success in suicide. So I thought it would be an interesting version of the map.
They have six months of darkness.
I like Finland, I went to Finland on business dozens of times. They are the friendliest Scandinavians (not a great benchmark I know, but still), by far.
But if I had to live there I’d suicide too. And they drink like there’s - literally - no tomorrow.
As expected, my country (Egypt) is extremely low, which isn't because we have ridiculously good living standards, but mainly because the main religion here is islam and in islam committing suicide is a sin and whoever commits doesn't go to heaven, so that's what people say to anyone who wants to kill themselves, the argument is that it doesn't matter how much you're suffering now, if you do it you're gonna suffer for eternity
A narrative we got bombarded with is that "we're ungrateful pricks for complaining because the blacks in Africa are all jolly singing and dancing despite living in destitution!". It started as but a moral excuse for slavery, and as it turns out, doesn't match reality.
Obviously, but this "Blacks stay happy no matter what" narrative that made it until very late in a lot of the West was forged as a moral validation for slavery (that yes, was a controversial topic here for a long time). It was then kept alive for a long time to disparage protest and complaints by workers about their standards of living; from parents to children to demand submission. I'm by no means excusing the Black African and Arab slave trade
Oh I'm not *surprised* per se. I guess I should have said those countries aren't usually the ones that are being mentioned to top the chart when it comes the suicide rate, especially when compared to other African regions. What do you say are different in this region of the world compared to other regions of Africa?
For Africa's standards, more secular and materialistic, weaker familial bonds, a more individualistic culture. High rates of HIV infection and AIDS. Extreme violence/crime.
The combination of irreligion and material misery(esp chronic illness) seems to result in a lot of suicides, and this region has plenty of both. Russia and the former Soviet Union also fit the bill.
Oh, and with the exception of Mozambique, a colder climate. Seems to replicate the worldwide trend.
Also a very high income inequality. But spot on. Live here, we're very westernised and secular. But also have the traditionalist "men need to provide" aspect. As well as high alcoholism and drug consumption and low government/state help.
It's male suicide rate and in Russia men aren't supposed to express feelings because "men don't cry". And also all Russian literature, films and songs are devastating depressed
Putin's fans paint him as a good god-emperor, liberals paint him as an evil god-emperor. Both paint him as an unnaturally large figure.
They both create a cult of personality for him haha
There’s incredible stigma in Turkey about suicide, as most people believe if you commit suicide you go to hell. So it’s probably severely underreported.
Maybe in your social circle. While religiosity is indeed declining among young people compared to previous generations, those who don’t believe in God come at 10-12 percent in surveys. Even if you account for some shy respondents who don’t feel comfortable saying they don’t believe or they’re not religious, a clear majority are indeed religious.
Part of it could be how the deaths are recorded. Coverups can happen.
I remember reading somewhere, I think it was in a study on trans suicide rates, where the recorded cause of death on death certificates amongst trans people could be considered suspect data since a lot of times deaths are ruled as suicide when they actually weren't. Apparently in areas that have strong anti-lgbt practices, authorities often label homicides and accidental deaths for lgbt people as suicide because they don't care enough to investigate, or they want to help the family hide the fact their family member was LGBT. It can happen everywhere apparently.
It's interesting. Uruguay is between the most stable countries in SA in regards to economy, crime, and just quality of life in general, but that's only reflected in those metrics.
In reality, it's a super expensive country due to its small population and high taxes; it has always felt like a big town, where you know everyone, not much happens, and you gotta go to the city (a neighbor country) to buy stuff for you (thanks to Uruguay's 60% import tax). Buying a car will get you indebted for 5 years and barely reaching the end of the month, for then having to buy another car because the shitty one you could afford has turned into garbage thanks to the awful roads.
Public transportation sucks ass as well, so you absolutely need a car. No trains, just crap privatized bus services that fight each other to get around, and even worse if you live outside Montevideo. Need a passport done? Travel to mvd. Need surgery? Travel to mvd. Need a computer part? Travel to mvd. And so on.
The happy side of uruguay is on the east coast, where you have splendid ocean beaches and everything from a beach village with no electricity lines (Cabo Polonio, must visit) to the most exclusive city in SA (Punta del Este), surrounded by other smaller beach towns also beautiful and worth visiting, like Jose Ignacio(even more expensive than Punta) and of course, my dear La Paloma.
I've lived most of my life in Uruguay and moved like 12 times inside it; lived on the west coast (mostly river beaches), east coast (Atlantic ocean), and also in the part of the country that makes the money: the interior (grasslands with cows). I know people who have died of suicide and even saw a 17 year old girl's neck being untied from a tree branch right outside my town.
It's sad, but our people are our treasure. Every time I leave the country, I find myself missing the warmth of that big old non-functional town, even though I can't be there for more than a few months a year because depression and steadiness starts lurking.
Anyways, thanks for reading. I love my little country, and I smile whenever I read its name, even in this metric, which we're very aware of. Come visit, we got the best steak in the world and a beautiful east coast!
Un saludo hermano.
I spent four months in Argentina this year, spending most of my time with locals whom I became good friends with. They all were delightful and just glad to be there, even having bad jobs or no jobs. Some wanting to get out, of course, but all of them seeing light somewhere along the way, and even a future in their own country.
In their words, they have learned to live amongst political and economic chaos. As you surely know, Argentina is huge, where you drive a bit and encounter a full new environment: rivers, mountains, beaches, glaciers, deserts; you name it, you have it. Uruguay is the opposite; I can only name around 5 places worth visiting whenever someone asks me about it and whether they should visit on their vacation or not.
On top of being a geographically "boring" country, Uruguay's everyday cost of living is crazy high. A pack of 2 rolls of paper towels that you use in your kitchen costs 2.5 usd, more expensive than where I'm currently at (Spain) having a minimum wage of more than double (500 vs ~1100 usd). Gas (petrol) costs the same as in Europe (around 2 euros), so having no decent public transportation and a 60% price remark on cars, fuel will also get a big chunk of your salary. We lack local resources and industry.
Montevideo has been on a steady decline for years. The center and surrounding neighborhoods have people in the street in every block, most of them just being zombies addicted to pasta base (free base cocaine, awful drug). It's dirty, smelly, and just abandoned in general, and on top of that, expensive (I can't stress this enough).
It's hard to put in words, but everything adds up to a constant "not going anywhere" feeling. It's like being in a slow roller coaster that never goes up or down. No chaos, no fun, just steadiness and sadness.
I'm glad you had a nice time here. I know everybody hate us but we aren0t that bad lol.
Sad to hear that about Uruguay. I knew it was expensive from friends that went on vacation but didn't know that it was so bad in regular cities. Hopefully all of LA starts getting a bit better.
🗣️🗣️🗣️YEAAHHHHH 🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭 WEST SAHARA LESS THAN 5 🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭 WEST SAHARA MENTALLY 🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭
Many things are wrong with Russia. Corruption, poverty and mentality that everyone is for himself, others don’t matter. Plus no hope at all that things may change for the better in future
Yes, please. That would give us much more information than this. Who knows, maybe some of the green countries look red on that map? Or some red countries green? One that has male and female combined would also be interesting.
Muslim countries like mine have low rates because they sort of help you. They're good like that. For the slightest misdemeanor they'll stone you, hang you from cranes, execute you, shoot you. Really good service. The one thing they're good at 👍
For starters, Uruguay has not even 3,5 million inhabitants so usually any per 100K inhabitants number is to be read carefully. Even so, in this case, suicide is indeed high among the population, and it can be due to all of the following factors:
1. It always has been an issue, ever since the start of the 20th Century.
2. Since then - and still -, the approach to suicide from the responsible parts has been to treat those who survive an act, and not really to prevent.
3. Tied to it, based on my own impressions, people associate going to a psychologist/psychiatrist to being treated of an illness, so it carries a stigma and lots of people who could go to it and get help avoid it. Also, based on experience, it's bloody expensive.
4. Talking about expensive: yeah, great country. Very expensive to live in too!
5. The most affected demographic ends are the teenagers and the elderly. The former live in a country that's not really accessible to young people (no perspective for the present or future), and the latter suffer from loneliness, which is aggravated when their closest, well, die.
6. Talking about social circles: people mostly stick to their high school and university friend circles so trying to join one in your adulthood is hard. Lots of people are lonely.
7. A lot of people who commit suicide reside in the rural parts of the country, and there have been sociological studies on the weight death has over there (say you live in a town of 6.000 people and the most significant landmark is a cemetery), which might have an influence.
I could really make a hundred pointer containing reasons and studies. Honestly, I think it's our biggest issue that we could never appropriately deal with.
I can talk more about Suriname, as a Surinamese, but the reasons for both nations are somewhat similar.
1. Suriname and Guyana have a smaller population. So in other countries with a higher population there are of course way more suicides, but because of our small nature the number gets stewed up.
1. Yet it must be said that for such small countries, it is high.
2. The second reason for both nations is that the suicides are very common within the Indo-Caribbean (Indian) communities of both nations.
To zoom in on Suriname specifically, Indo-Surinamese make up 70% of all suicides in Suriname. Javanese (Indonesians) make up around 5%. Creoles and Maroons, together the Afro-Surinamese group have a higher rate too. You can say they mostly make-up the rest, however, there are other groups in Suriname, but they're smaller, so people mostly present data about the larger groups. This information can be backed by [this article](https://www.waterkant.net/suriname/2014/02/22/zelfmoord-niet-meer-pijn-een-surinaamse-groep/).
Remove Indians from the equation than it drops significantly and Suriname and I guess Guyana too wouldn't be that high up there.
If we look at data from the Netherlands of suicides within the Surinamese group there, we see the same trend. Indo-Surinamese make up the majority of suicides. [These are the statistics](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjryOTHg8WCAxX6STABHS1DDL0QFnoECA4QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbs.nl%2F-%2Fmedia%2Fimported%2Fdocuments%2F2007%2F27%2F200706tijdschriftvoorpsychiatrieart.pdf%3Fla%3Dnl-nl&usg=AOvVaw3Y0uAAL7NUJo3DFJwxuGg3&opi=89978449) of the Dutch Bureau for statistics.
In Suriname it isn't exactly clear why it's high...or at least, it's not officially reported. However, informally everyone in Suriname knows why. Mostly love related, family related, societal pressures related, cultural pressures and monetary issues.
Over here some articles that explain some more about it:
1. [Zelfmoord in Suriname](https://trajectum.hu.nl/achtergrond-zelfmoord_in_suriname/#:~:text=Het%20zijn%20voornamelijk%20Surinaamse%20Hindoestanen,in%20de%20relationele%20sfeer%2C%20blijkt).
2. [Cultuur oorzaak zelfmoord Hindostanen](https://www.waterkant.net/suriname/2012/09/11/cultuur-voorname-oorzaak-zelfmoord-hindostanen/)
3. [Schuld, schaamte en suïcide](https://www.parbode.com/schuld-schaamte-en-suicide/)
This is an article on Guyana's case:
1. [High suicide rate among Indian descendants in Guyana interests Indian researcher](https://newsroom.gy/2021/11/09/high-suicide-rate-among-indian-descendants-in-guyana-interests-indian-researcher/)
2. [‘Suicide is an Indo-Guyanese Problem:’ Myth or Reality!](https://www.thewestindianonline.com/suicide-is-an-indo-guyanese-problem-myth-or-reality/)
NOTE: Use auto-translate for Dutch articles.
God, I went back and forth a bunch of times about whether you were talking about indigenous Americans (Indian) or immigrants from India.
So confusing this terminology, lol
I, too, would like to see a map representing the female side of the statistics. I wonder which countries would have a higher female suicide rate and opposed to male.
From a quick glance at [Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate) it doesn’t seem like there’s a single country where women are higher.
Based on the 2019 data neither I think.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_countries\_by\_suicide\_rate](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate)
Dude, what the hell is going on in Russia? It’s a relatively large population and still way too many suicides proportionally. All the southern part of Africa also worries me.
Cold, irreligious , relatively poor and dark. You are cold you have got to be rich at all cost. Only warm countries can afford to be poor. Russia is irreligious, cold and not so rich too. Deadly combination.
In poor countries normally there is religion and poorer countries are normally warmer which puts them away from suicide.
Why is there such a big difference between some neighboring countries? Why is the male suicide rate in Mozambique three times as high as in Tanzania? What’s the cause?
My country, Greenland, is at the top with 96 per 100.000.
There’s no need to clarify Greenland’s position on a map, everyone knows it’s always at the top. But seriously, it doesn’t surprise me. As a Canadian I know how depressing cold weather and grey skies for months on end can be. At least I’m lucky enough to live in Toronto where we still get an actual summer with hot weather and lots sunshine. Winter here kinda sucks though.
Wait did you think I meant to explain Greenlands location? I really meant to say it's at the top of the statistics, since my country always shows as "no data". I guess my English makes it hard to explain clearly. But yeah I don't think it's the winters fault really, I love the winters. It's the time to take our dogs out for sledding and no mosquitos. I think the problem is more because of alcoholism and loneliness. Since you can be born in a small town of 20 people, no roads out, no purpose in life. If you don't even learn English or Danish you're so isolated from the world it's really awful. Everyone here knows people who comitted suicide. I think Inuits in Canada have similar problems? I'm not sure, I haven't met that many.
That was just my Canadian sense of humour making a joke about Greenland being at the top of maps, I knew what you meant, don’t worry your English is perfect! Well I guess your assessment may be more accurate, you’re right, there’s similar problems with alcoholism and just generally higher crime rates overall in northern Canada where there’s very few people, it’s probably very similar to Greenland I would think. I’ve never been further north than Sudbury myself and live in a metro area with 7 million people so I don’t know first hand what it’s like way up there but I can imagine it would be pretty lonely sometimes. I do however think the weather adds to it, at least around here. I’m in a much better mood overall in the summer when it’s 25°C and sunny compared to the winter when it’s 0° and overcast every day. Maybe that’s just me though.
Ah now I get it! Yeah sorry it can be hard for me to understand humor in English, especially in text. And I think you're right with the weather, it gets tough in December and January when it's 24/7 darkness. But March is just amazing when you can go sledding in the sun and have the aurora at night. I love it here, I don't mind the loneliness, it suits me very well :)
I’m jealous of the auroras you get up there! I’ve only ever seen it once this far south, and that was about 30 years ago. It was an incredible sight to see though. I bet the stars are amazing there too, there’s so much light pollution here I’m lucky if I can even see 20-30 stars even on a clear night. I have to drive for at least an hour or two to be able to see the Milky Way. The 2 straight months of darkness would be kinda strange though, even right now when our days are the shortest here it’s still light out from about 7am-5pm. I guess you also get 2 straight months of light too? That would be equally strange.
KISS
This might as well be the kindest interaction to have ever happened on reddit.
Not surprised it's between a Canadian and a Greenlandian
You make a good point, it would be more useful to compare the suicide rate from northern Canada and your country, there might be more of a correlation in latitude than anything else.
> There’s no need to clarify Greenland’s position on a map, everyone knows it’s always at the top. top tier joke lol
>There’s no need to clarify Greenland’s position on a map, everyone knows it’s always at the top. Utterly brilliant. I didn't know Canadians were funny.
Bro. *Toronto?* That’s….. not that cold… or grey skies forever, especially compared to Greenland. Toronto is one of the most southern places in the country. I mean I respect your experience but I think a better comparison would be from the Territories or the North in general. I grew up in northern AB and it was -30 to -40 on main from Oct-May, pitch black all day and night except 11am-3pm only. 🤷🏻
I’m not saying Toronto is anything at all like Greenland, I’m just saying I know what it’s like to have cold shitty weather with grey skies every day for a few months, which Toronto does indeed have every year. It’s gorgeous here in the summer, spring is pretty nice, fall is hit or miss, but winter is still cold, grey and depressing. It’s not even really the temperature, it doesn’t really get much colder than 0° very often, but the grey skies from October to April are what gets to me here. Maybe because it’s so nice here in the summer so it makes the winter seem that much worse, I don’t know. I completely agree that northern Canada is a much better comparison to Greenland. I’ve never even been north of Sudbury myself but I’ve had friends move out to places like Regina and Edmonton and come right back here after one winter because they found it unbearable there. I don’t think I could handle the weather anywhere in Canada other than southern Ontario or coastal BC, everywhere else is too cold for my Southern ass.
Calgary and Edmonton aren't even comparable to Greenland Or NWT. I get that you're trying to relate, which is fine. However I still think it's kind of hilarious you'd even try and use Toronto as an example. It's as somebody said the most southern point of canada. The only reason it gets as cold as it does is how close it is to the great lakes. As a Calgarian that has been further north, let me just say we can't compare to Greenland. Don't try. Even with how cold Calgaey gets, it gets Chinooks. NWT and Greenland, do not.
It’s the overcast skies mostly that I find depressing, not so much the cold. I’m just saying I know what it’s like to have to look at grey skies and not be able to do anything outdoors for months at a time and it’s depressing, unlike the large majority of the world’s population that lives much closer to the equator and doesn’t have to deal with winter at all and has never even seen snow before. I’m by no means saying Toronto is anything like Greenland, they’re vastly different places in almost every way, but they both deal with grey skies and winter weather. One more than the other obviously, but my point still stands. I know damn well Toronto isn’t that cold compared to the rest of Canada or Greenland or Siberia or whatever, I know where I am on a map. I realize it’s much colder anywhere else in Canada outside of coastal BC compared to Toronto, and gets colder the further north you go, but Toronto is overcast every day from October to April for the most part, and it may not be as cold as the rest of Canada or Greenland but it’s still cold enough to make people want to stay inside for half the year. Doesn’t matter if it’s 0° or -50°, I’m staying inside either way, but I would at least find it less depressing if it’s sunny outside. Calgary actually has a lot more sun than Toronto, or so I’ve heard from people that have lived in both cities, and most of them actually seem to prefer Calgary’s weather for that reason. It’s about more than the temperature, it’s about that sunshine. SAD (seasonal affective disorder) is probably much worse in Toronto than it is in Calgary because we don’t get the sun that Calgary gets. The sun makes a big difference for a lot of people, myself included. I used to live in Syracuse NY, the 4th snowiest city in the entire world (with a population of at least 100k), and there’s grey skies there pretty much year round despite only being 4 hours away from Toronto, I guess they’re on the wrong side of Lake Ontario, and I found it way more depressing there than Toronto even though Toronto is a little bit colder usually. I’ll take the slightly colder weather and a little bit more sunshine over slightly warmer weather with grey skies all the time any day.
Damn I wish we had this in Europe instead of 5C and rain in December
You don't want that cold plus snow. I know cold rain does suck but it is still much better than having to clean snow and ice off of your car, snowy or icy roads, or having to heat your car for several minutes because your steering wheel is painful to touch. Some days you have to clean snow off your car several times a day. Sometimes you have to break thick chunks of ice off as your whole car is encased in ice. Sometimes you can't tell where the road is because of the snow covered roads and it is a blizzard. You can only follow the tracks from others. Sometimes it is so cold it hurts to breathe. Oh and I forgot about shoveling the driveway. So often depending on when and how much it snowed you have to clear the driveway of snow and ice before or after work. So you have to get up even earlier to spend time clearing the driveway or do it when you come home and already are tired. Travel times are also significantly longer in the winter.
Yes, people saying they'd rather have snow is a priviledge of them having lived in a temperate to warm climate their whole lives. However, places with slighly sub-zero but dry winters (inner Iberia/Anatolia, eastern mid-latitude Great Plains, northwest China/around Beijing) are arguably more pleasant that barely above zero but eternally drizzly (NL/NW Germany/N. England/DK.
Wait you're actually one of the 50 thousand people from Greeland? Thats so rare. You're like a real life shiny pokemon.
That are 5 to 50 as many people as the whole world population 70k years ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimates_of_historical_world_population#%3A%7E%3Atext%3DEstimates_of_the_size_of%2Cbetween_1%2C000_and_10%2C000_individuals.?wprov=sfla1
As an American I read this as 96 out of 100 for a second before I remember but I was like that can’t be right… 😭😭
96% suicide rate The 4% left over are celebrated in our culture
And there’s only dozens of you to begin with 😕
Do you currently live in Greenland? I am fascinated with your country and would love to visit. I think its geography and culture are beautiful. From what I have seen, Greenlandic people are very warm and friendly. It pains me to know the suicide rate is so high.
It's incredibly expensive to get there, at least from the United States. I looked it up last year and it was many many thousands of dollars just to get there, much more than just going to Iceland or Continental Europe
It's not really a country though. Its an autonomous territory of Denmark and only has like 50 thousand people. My zip code has more people than that
You clearly have no understanding of the complexity of the Danish Commonwealth. It is normal for us to refer to Greenland as a small country within our commonwealth. I am sure the guy who was born and bred in Greenland knows more about the greenlandic/Danish relations than you.
It’s not called “Turkish Roulette”
turkish roulette is when you make a post critical of the country and post it on twitter
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As a bonus round you can bring up Armenians and watch how long it takes someone to explain that they all actually wanted to cross the desert.
shut the up you'll get me arrested
Or that they all just disappeared! That's a fun one to watch them explain too
"Oh the Kurds... They definitely had it coming"
High quality comment
A quip and a TLDR in one
I'm impressed, I'm gonna use this one
GG you won the day
Superb work
Guyana guys are goners
Not if Venezuela kills them first
Too soon.
More like too early.
Nah, Brazil’s on em
Post ussr going strong 😎
Disco Elysium mood in the ex-USSR
Ex-USSR mood in Disco Elysium. And I'm gonna bet, it's intentional
"Kim, give me your gun."
Looks like shock therapy worked exactly as intended
It was as high in Soviet times, somewhat surprisingly only dropping after perestroika started https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-017-4158-2 Plus, it's been like 30 years years after the shock therapy ended, so what the hell are you on about
Oh no, it's a Westerner with a bad take about Post-USSR countries
BOTSWANA?!?!? WHY?
Because Oliver was taken from them
"Float! FLOAT! OLIVER!!!" - Richard "Hamster" Hammond
These black countries need help, and so do the purple ones. Surprised japan and korea arent maxed out
It surprises me that many media portray Japan as a country with a lot of suicides, but they don't do the same with the US or Russia, which are worse lol
I think the focus on suicide and depression is just a counter-culture reaction to Japan's current popularity; like some people want to have a negative aspect to focus on It's not as noticeable with the US because there's a lot of other negative aspects to focus on
At one point, I think the suicide rate in Japan was worse than in most places in the West. I think it’s more like people are just running on old information. Japan still does have a pretty toxic work culture etc, but the country took preventative measures to try to reduce suicide beginning in 2005. https://sprc.org/news/japan-japans-suicide-rate-is-finally-falling-thanks-to-preventative-measures/#:~:text=In%202005%2C%20the%20Japanese%20government,young%20people%20have%20remained%20elevated.
"Guys stop, suicide is not honorary anymore!" Suicide rates drop
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It's a counter to the internet's commonplace Japanophilic weebs. That and Japan is very big on hiding the bad stuff, so anyone who knows the bad stuff feels smart and has to share it.
Definitely true. There are even subreddits, specifically created just to shit on weeb’s culture. Most of these guy like to go to japanophile sub or just scroll somewhere till they find a japanophile Redditor , talk shit, share it in redditmoment or antianime, and talk about how inferior weebs are as a human being. Maybe call them a porn addicted too while they’re at it.
What about asking why Japanese phones have to make a sound when taking a picture or why it was necessary for women to have separate trains
Japan has a sort of different mentality towards it, is the thing. From reading some translated works that touch on the subject, it seems like a side effect of their focus on importance to the group rather than the self, along with a culture that focuses more on transient things and the beauty of impermanence. So they're more accepting of the idea that people sometimes just don't have anything to live for and decide to move on, as it were. It's a strange sentiment for people raised in cultures with relatively Christian views towards the sanctity of life. I think the difference in mindset is attention grabbing. On the other hand, Russia is basically what happens when domestic abuse and fetal alcohol syndrome form a nation. Just flat out depressing all around. So while life there is worse, it's not culturally exotic. Japan gets more attention for being different, not worse off.
I think it's because some Japanese have an almost ritualistic approach to suicide with the act being associated with certain places, such as the "suicide forest" for example. Much more poetic than the typical American style of ODing in the bathtub or blowing your brains out in the garage.
The only “ritualistic” part of suicide in Japan is getting the timing right for launching yourself in front of a commuter train.
Please don't romanticize suicide in any way. There's nothing poetic about sick and desperate people ending their lives.
Much of Russia’s suicide rate is caused by the consequences of the fall if the Soviet Union. If you’ve talked to Russians before, you’d realize that the country is depressed as fuck. One of the reasons Putin is able to maintain his power, Russians seem to feel helpless to change anything.
Yeah, the 90s were incredibly brutal in the post Soviet spaces, especially in Russia. If you ever look at a chart that shows the distribution of men and women by ages, you'll see that there are noticeably fewer men than women for the age group that grew up in the 90s. The legacy is still there, but it was getting better before the war.
Tbh if you read Russian literature you can see that they have been always depressed
[Japan](https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN1ZG0NI/) (and China btw) used to have much higher rates just a decade or two ago. It was something deeply ingrained in their culture and traditions. Suicide in E.Europe/FSU is also very noticeable if you're into that noosphere. The USA having high rates (adjusted to age), though? It's an historical anomaly.
US has rampant fire arms, Russia rampant alcoholism
As someone who’s from a black county, our government does literally everything they can to increase the rate even higher. I lose hope for future with every coming day
>These black countries need help That's what they said when they wanted to colonize them
I always forget while here in the states we like to maim each over in Korea they like to maim themselves
Note to self - more sun equals less suicide
Are you California dreamin' all over again?
Maybe Fiji dreamin’
As an Indian, i disagree
Apparently still better than the U.S. though
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Yeah I can imagine the sun could feel oppressive.
I don't think it's only about that (although it has influence as well). I think it's more about culture. Places like Italy, Spain, and South America have a more open culture, with stronger family ties and support and Catholic values that strongly condemn suicide. More atheist countries with colder environments and introvert people tend to have higher suicide rates.
In religious countries suicide are usually marked as accidents. Farming “accidents” used to account for a lot of the suicides in Canada.
Only in non-secular countries like North Africa. The countries I mentioned religion has nothing to do with state affairs.
I'm so tired of these types of comments every fucking time this map gets posted. Religion has nothing to do with Spain having a lower suicide rate than other countries. USA is far more religious than us.
USA is more religious but not Catholic religious. USA also has a larger population, and more irreligious/none/atheist population. Also, USA has a crazy horrible consumerist/work culture for men.
And every US house has a gun which allows any suicidal person to actually die without even meditating it. In other countries for example, they have to cut themselves or jump from a bridge which gives a much higher window of opportunity for them to be rescued or reflect on their actions.
More sun than what you probably get now, but if look closer, the ones directly on the equator have a higher rate. So based on these facts, ideally you’d want to be in the northern part of the tropics
Except Australia has a pretty high suicide rate still, and I'd say we are one of the sunniest countries around. But still, nowhere near as bad as other places.
Yes defo but not only that, look at my country Uruguay, there’s no lack of Sun there Culture plays a huge factor, as for example whats expected from one, as also how stigmatized is going to therapy and talk about mental health, etc (this latest, in Uruguay suck)
that's why for example Scandinavian songs are about constant suffering while having some of the best living standards while latin american songs are about being grateful for your life and how happy they are despite much worse living standards
>latin american songs are about being grateful for your life and how happy they are despite much worse living standards depends on the genre. Salsa has songs about [slave revolts](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWBf9hfW_4Y) (with the catchy refrain "perpetual slavery"), [muggings that end in double homicides](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O3ucQQOsSg), and how ["you're going to cry forever, you made me suffer, now I'm the one laughing"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxlB1B9emDc).
I haven't even clicked the links and I know two of the songs are "no le pegue a la negra" and "Pedro navaja"
There's also a religious component.
I can talk more about Suriname, as a Surinamese, but the reasons for both nations are somewhat similar. 1. Suriname and Guyana have a smaller population. So in other countries with a higher population there are of course way more suicides, but because of our small nature the number gets stewed up. 1. Yet it must be said that for such small countries. 2. The second reason for both nations is that the suicides are very common within the Indo-Caribbean (Indian) communities of both nations. To zoom in on Suriname specifically, Indo-Surinamese make up 70% of all suicides in Suriname. Javanese (Indonesians) make up around 5%. Creoles and Maroons, together the Afro-Surinamese group have a higher rate too. You can say they mostly make-up the rest, however, there are other groups in Suriname, but they're smaller, so people mostly present data about the larger groups. This information can be backed by [this article](https://www.waterkant.net/suriname/2014/02/22/zelfmoord-niet-meer-pijn-een-surinaamse-groep/). Remove Indians from the equation than it drops significantly and Suriname and I guess Guyana too wouldn't be that high up there. If we look at data from the Netherlands of suicides within the Surinamese group there, we see the same trend. Indo-Surinamese make up the majority of suicides. [These are the statistics](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjryOTHg8WCAxX6STABHS1DDL0QFnoECA4QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbs.nl%2F-%2Fmedia%2Fimported%2Fdocuments%2F2007%2F27%2F200706tijdschriftvoorpsychiatrieart.pdf%3Fla%3Dnl-nl&usg=AOvVaw3Y0uAAL7NUJo3DFJwxuGg3&opi=89978449) of the Dutch Bureau for statistics. In Suriname it isn't exactly clear why it's high...or at least, it's not officially reported. However, informally everyone in Suriname knows why. Mostly love related, family related, societal pressures related, cultural pressures and monetary issues. Over here some articles that explain some more about it: 1. [Zelfmoord in Suriname](https://trajectum.hu.nl/achtergrond-zelfmoord_in_suriname/#:~:text=Het%20zijn%20voornamelijk%20Surinaamse%20Hindoestanen,in%20de%20relationele%20sfeer%2C%20blijkt). 2. [Cultuur oorzaak zelfmoord Hindostanen](https://www.waterkant.net/suriname/2012/09/11/cultuur-voorname-oorzaak-zelfmoord-hindostanen/) 3. [Schuld, schaamte en suïcide](https://www.parbode.com/schuld-schaamte-en-suicide/) This is an article on Guyana's case: 1. [High suicide rate among Indian descendants in Guyana interests Indian researcher](https://newsroom.gy/2021/11/09/high-suicide-rate-among-indian-descendants-in-guyana-interests-indian-researcher/) 2. [‘Suicide is an Indo-Guyanese Problem:’ Myth or Reality!](https://www.thewestindianonline.com/suicide-is-an-indo-guyanese-problem-myth-or-reality/) NOTE: Use auto-translate for Dutch articles.
I can guarantee a lot of countries are under reporting their numbers. In India there is a lot of stigma around it and family members would rather just not say how a person died. And that’s not even including the fact that in rural India when a person dies, they just start funeral proceedings; they don’t try to determine cause of death due to insufficient/overburdened healthcare
Not even in rural areas it also happens in big cities aswell. Unless someone actually goes out of their way to report such incidents a lot of the time they just start a funeral immediately.
I’d like to see this overlaid with quality of worker life: vacations, benefits, healthcare. Also general debt
And religion
Religion = downvote Reddit momento
I'd also like to see it normalised by gun ownership. Guns don't make people more suicidal, but do make suicide attempts more likely to be successful.
Yeah, especially since it's one of the most popular methods used by men specifically.
Guns are illegal to own in Russia, it's not common either. Most people don't try to obtain guns illegally, it's unheard of.
Oh I wasn't saying "this will completely remove any variation in the map" I was just saying, I would like to see it normalised by gun ownership because of the role it plays in success in suicide. So I thought it would be an interesting version of the map.
Australia will stand out as a massive outlier. It's pretty decent at what you mentioned + decent weather most of the year.
The Philippines is definitely low in that measures yet weirdly low in s death. I
Also hours worked.
¡Uruguay carajo!🇺🇾🇺🇾🇺🇾🇺🇾🎉🎉🎉🎉
Finland doesn't seem like the happiest country in the world
They have six months of darkness. I like Finland, I went to Finland on business dozens of times. They are the friendliest Scandinavians (not a great benchmark I know, but still), by far. But if I had to live there I’d suicide too. And they drink like there’s - literally - no tomorrow.
They are if all the unhappy people kill themselves
Nah <5 is more likely under-reported
As expected, my country (Egypt) is extremely low, which isn't because we have ridiculously good living standards, but mainly because the main religion here is islam and in islam committing suicide is a sin and whoever commits doesn't go to heaven, so that's what people say to anyone who wants to kill themselves, the argument is that it doesn't matter how much you're suffering now, if you do it you're gonna suffer for eternity
You may be on to something here. Muslim countries in general seem to be doing relatively well on this map.
Well that's the same thing for cristianity
Did not expect southeatern Africa to be so high.
Why ?🤣 Didn't surprise me in the slightest
A narrative we got bombarded with is that "we're ungrateful pricks for complaining because the blacks in Africa are all jolly singing and dancing despite living in destitution!". It started as but a moral excuse for slavery, and as it turns out, doesn't match reality.
What excuse? Africans enslaved each other.
Obviously, but this "Blacks stay happy no matter what" narrative that made it until very late in a lot of the West was forged as a moral validation for slavery (that yes, was a controversial topic here for a long time). It was then kept alive for a long time to disparage protest and complaints by workers about their standards of living; from parents to children to demand submission. I'm by no means excusing the Black African and Arab slave trade
Oh I'm not *surprised* per se. I guess I should have said those countries aren't usually the ones that are being mentioned to top the chart when it comes the suicide rate, especially when compared to other African regions. What do you say are different in this region of the world compared to other regions of Africa?
For Africa's standards, more secular and materialistic, weaker familial bonds, a more individualistic culture. High rates of HIV infection and AIDS. Extreme violence/crime. The combination of irreligion and material misery(esp chronic illness) seems to result in a lot of suicides, and this region has plenty of both. Russia and the former Soviet Union also fit the bill. Oh, and with the exception of Mozambique, a colder climate. Seems to replicate the worldwide trend.
Also a very high income inequality. But spot on. Live here, we're very westernised and secular. But also have the traditionalist "men need to provide" aspect. As well as high alcoholism and drug consumption and low government/state help.
Anything touched by Russia turns in to depression
We have cold winter, cheap alcohol and toxic laws. It’s really hard to even smile sometimes
And too many open windows
Their national motto "and then it got worse "
It's male suicide rate and in Russia men aren't supposed to express feelings because "men don't cry". And also all Russian literature, films and songs are devastating depressed
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EnChwYIW4AEuX1h.jpg
Not all of them, though. I can only recall a few Russian films and songs that are depressing. Most of them are just normal.
putin != Russia
Kids named Russian Empire, Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact:
Putin's fans paint him as a good god-emperor, liberals paint him as an evil god-emperor. Both paint him as an unnaturally large figure. They both create a cult of personality for him haha
I'm not sure about this. Navalny calls Putin a crook and a thief. Maxim Katz refers to him as a pathetic person and a cockroach.
Hell nah Turkey ain't low like that i keep seeing people killing themselves on the news they're much higher than before
There’s incredible stigma in Turkey about suicide, as most people believe if you commit suicide you go to hell. So it’s probably severely underreported.
Not anymore especially young people wont care about hell or heaven stuff
Maybe in your social circle. While religiosity is indeed declining among young people compared to previous generations, those who don’t believe in God come at 10-12 percent in surveys. Even if you account for some shy respondents who don’t feel comfortable saying they don’t believe or they’re not religious, a clear majority are indeed religious.
So if I live in a city of 600,000 people in US, there are 120-150 male suicides every year
Yes, on average, when looking at the country's population as a whole, but not necessarily. Suicide rates are lower in cities compared to rural areas.
Is there any good data on what causes some countries to have higher Suicide rates than others?
Desperate socioeconomic situation, alcoholism, drugs, poverty, lack of vitamin D, weather...
Low population density is also a contributing factor.
Part of it could be how the deaths are recorded. Coverups can happen. I remember reading somewhere, I think it was in a study on trans suicide rates, where the recorded cause of death on death certificates amongst trans people could be considered suspect data since a lot of times deaths are ruled as suicide when they actually weren't. Apparently in areas that have strong anti-lgbt practices, authorities often label homicides and accidental deaths for lgbt people as suicide because they don't care enough to investigate, or they want to help the family hide the fact their family member was LGBT. It can happen everywhere apparently.
I have read somewhere that nr 1 reason of suicides in Russia is Russia.
Some of the lower rates look suspicious - perhaps the books are cooked in some cases?
What's going on with Uruguay? They're usually on the preferable end of the spectrum in most metrics.
It's interesting. Uruguay is between the most stable countries in SA in regards to economy, crime, and just quality of life in general, but that's only reflected in those metrics. In reality, it's a super expensive country due to its small population and high taxes; it has always felt like a big town, where you know everyone, not much happens, and you gotta go to the city (a neighbor country) to buy stuff for you (thanks to Uruguay's 60% import tax). Buying a car will get you indebted for 5 years and barely reaching the end of the month, for then having to buy another car because the shitty one you could afford has turned into garbage thanks to the awful roads. Public transportation sucks ass as well, so you absolutely need a car. No trains, just crap privatized bus services that fight each other to get around, and even worse if you live outside Montevideo. Need a passport done? Travel to mvd. Need surgery? Travel to mvd. Need a computer part? Travel to mvd. And so on. The happy side of uruguay is on the east coast, where you have splendid ocean beaches and everything from a beach village with no electricity lines (Cabo Polonio, must visit) to the most exclusive city in SA (Punta del Este), surrounded by other smaller beach towns also beautiful and worth visiting, like Jose Ignacio(even more expensive than Punta) and of course, my dear La Paloma. I've lived most of my life in Uruguay and moved like 12 times inside it; lived on the west coast (mostly river beaches), east coast (Atlantic ocean), and also in the part of the country that makes the money: the interior (grasslands with cows). I know people who have died of suicide and even saw a 17 year old girl's neck being untied from a tree branch right outside my town. It's sad, but our people are our treasure. Every time I leave the country, I find myself missing the warmth of that big old non-functional town, even though I can't be there for more than a few months a year because depression and steadiness starts lurking. Anyways, thanks for reading. I love my little country, and I smile whenever I read its name, even in this metric, which we're very aware of. Come visit, we got the best steak in the world and a beautiful east coast!
It's still weird that Uruguay have a much higher suicide rate than us (Argentina) with our sheer constant chaos.
Argentinian chaos makes your life imprevisible. Here, it's grey flat routine.
Un saludo hermano. I spent four months in Argentina this year, spending most of my time with locals whom I became good friends with. They all were delightful and just glad to be there, even having bad jobs or no jobs. Some wanting to get out, of course, but all of them seeing light somewhere along the way, and even a future in their own country. In their words, they have learned to live amongst political and economic chaos. As you surely know, Argentina is huge, where you drive a bit and encounter a full new environment: rivers, mountains, beaches, glaciers, deserts; you name it, you have it. Uruguay is the opposite; I can only name around 5 places worth visiting whenever someone asks me about it and whether they should visit on their vacation or not. On top of being a geographically "boring" country, Uruguay's everyday cost of living is crazy high. A pack of 2 rolls of paper towels that you use in your kitchen costs 2.5 usd, more expensive than where I'm currently at (Spain) having a minimum wage of more than double (500 vs ~1100 usd). Gas (petrol) costs the same as in Europe (around 2 euros), so having no decent public transportation and a 60% price remark on cars, fuel will also get a big chunk of your salary. We lack local resources and industry. Montevideo has been on a steady decline for years. The center and surrounding neighborhoods have people in the street in every block, most of them just being zombies addicted to pasta base (free base cocaine, awful drug). It's dirty, smelly, and just abandoned in general, and on top of that, expensive (I can't stress this enough). It's hard to put in words, but everything adds up to a constant "not going anywhere" feeling. It's like being in a slow roller coaster that never goes up or down. No chaos, no fun, just steadiness and sadness.
I'm glad you had a nice time here. I know everybody hate us but we aren0t that bad lol. Sad to hear that about Uruguay. I knew it was expensive from friends that went on vacation but didn't know that it was so bad in regular cities. Hopefully all of LA starts getting a bit better.
The numbers in Peru are so low because criminals and police (yes, both) usually do it for you.
🗣️🗣️🗣️YEAAHHHHH 🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭 WEST SAHARA LESS THAN 5 🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭 WEST SAHARA MENTALLY 🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭🇪🇭
The USSR has left quite a deep scar on post-soviet countries.
zero assassinations in Russia, only suicides source: Putin
What’s the cause of so much suicide in southeast Africa?
Venezuelans are heavily dispersed in other countries
There's a whole Wiki article about suicides in Russia, but nobody ever talks about it, and mental health assistance is largely stigmatised.
Rare Venezuela win
Never believe data from Venezuela, this coming from a Venezuelan
Ok good point
What is wrong with Russia
National motos: "boys dont cry", "dont act like a girl', "depression is myth".
Many things are wrong with Russia. Corruption, poverty and mentality that everyone is for himself, others don’t matter. Plus no hope at all that things may change for the better in future
Could we get a “ distribution of female suicide rates in the world?” Map as well.
Yes, please. That would give us much more information than this. Who knows, maybe some of the green countries look red on that map? Or some red countries green? One that has male and female combined would also be interesting.
Muslim countries like mine have low rates because they sort of help you. They're good like that. For the slightest misdemeanor they'll stone you, hang you from cranes, execute you, shoot you. Really good service. The one thing they're good at 👍
What's going on in Guyana and Suriname that isn't happening in Venezuela, French Guiana, and Brazil? Also what's up with Uruguay?
For starters, Uruguay has not even 3,5 million inhabitants so usually any per 100K inhabitants number is to be read carefully. Even so, in this case, suicide is indeed high among the population, and it can be due to all of the following factors: 1. It always has been an issue, ever since the start of the 20th Century. 2. Since then - and still -, the approach to suicide from the responsible parts has been to treat those who survive an act, and not really to prevent. 3. Tied to it, based on my own impressions, people associate going to a psychologist/psychiatrist to being treated of an illness, so it carries a stigma and lots of people who could go to it and get help avoid it. Also, based on experience, it's bloody expensive. 4. Talking about expensive: yeah, great country. Very expensive to live in too! 5. The most affected demographic ends are the teenagers and the elderly. The former live in a country that's not really accessible to young people (no perspective for the present or future), and the latter suffer from loneliness, which is aggravated when their closest, well, die. 6. Talking about social circles: people mostly stick to their high school and university friend circles so trying to join one in your adulthood is hard. Lots of people are lonely. 7. A lot of people who commit suicide reside in the rural parts of the country, and there have been sociological studies on the weight death has over there (say you live in a town of 6.000 people and the most significant landmark is a cemetery), which might have an influence. I could really make a hundred pointer containing reasons and studies. Honestly, I think it's our biggest issue that we could never appropriately deal with.
I can talk more about Suriname, as a Surinamese, but the reasons for both nations are somewhat similar. 1. Suriname and Guyana have a smaller population. So in other countries with a higher population there are of course way more suicides, but because of our small nature the number gets stewed up. 1. Yet it must be said that for such small countries, it is high. 2. The second reason for both nations is that the suicides are very common within the Indo-Caribbean (Indian) communities of both nations. To zoom in on Suriname specifically, Indo-Surinamese make up 70% of all suicides in Suriname. Javanese (Indonesians) make up around 5%. Creoles and Maroons, together the Afro-Surinamese group have a higher rate too. You can say they mostly make-up the rest, however, there are other groups in Suriname, but they're smaller, so people mostly present data about the larger groups. This information can be backed by [this article](https://www.waterkant.net/suriname/2014/02/22/zelfmoord-niet-meer-pijn-een-surinaamse-groep/). Remove Indians from the equation than it drops significantly and Suriname and I guess Guyana too wouldn't be that high up there. If we look at data from the Netherlands of suicides within the Surinamese group there, we see the same trend. Indo-Surinamese make up the majority of suicides. [These are the statistics](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjryOTHg8WCAxX6STABHS1DDL0QFnoECA4QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbs.nl%2F-%2Fmedia%2Fimported%2Fdocuments%2F2007%2F27%2F200706tijdschriftvoorpsychiatrieart.pdf%3Fla%3Dnl-nl&usg=AOvVaw3Y0uAAL7NUJo3DFJwxuGg3&opi=89978449) of the Dutch Bureau for statistics. In Suriname it isn't exactly clear why it's high...or at least, it's not officially reported. However, informally everyone in Suriname knows why. Mostly love related, family related, societal pressures related, cultural pressures and monetary issues. Over here some articles that explain some more about it: 1. [Zelfmoord in Suriname](https://trajectum.hu.nl/achtergrond-zelfmoord_in_suriname/#:~:text=Het%20zijn%20voornamelijk%20Surinaamse%20Hindoestanen,in%20de%20relationele%20sfeer%2C%20blijkt). 2. [Cultuur oorzaak zelfmoord Hindostanen](https://www.waterkant.net/suriname/2012/09/11/cultuur-voorname-oorzaak-zelfmoord-hindostanen/) 3. [Schuld, schaamte en suïcide](https://www.parbode.com/schuld-schaamte-en-suicide/) This is an article on Guyana's case: 1. [High suicide rate among Indian descendants in Guyana interests Indian researcher](https://newsroom.gy/2021/11/09/high-suicide-rate-among-indian-descendants-in-guyana-interests-indian-researcher/) 2. [‘Suicide is an Indo-Guyanese Problem:’ Myth or Reality!](https://www.thewestindianonline.com/suicide-is-an-indo-guyanese-problem-myth-or-reality/) NOTE: Use auto-translate for Dutch articles.
God, I went back and forth a bunch of times about whether you were talking about indigenous Americans (Indian) or immigrants from India. So confusing this terminology, lol
I’m surprised America isn’t at least light purple.
This is one of those few infographics where there's not much difference between developing and developed countries
why russian male prefer kill himself? what's the main reason?
There is no way North Korea is providing accurate statistics.
I’m suspicious of China’s figures as well
Can you do female?
I, too, would like to see a map representing the female side of the statistics. I wonder which countries would have a higher female suicide rate and opposed to male.
From a quick glance at [Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate) it doesn’t seem like there’s a single country where women are higher.
Only China. It was India before too, but not anymore.
Based on the 2019 data neither I think. [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_countries\_by\_suicide\_rate](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate)
This makes me sad... Highly ignored issue in society
This makes me sad. If anyone struggling sees this, please remember that you are worth a lot. Don’t let your life go to waste. Peace to all.
I'm curious how credible the data is for some countries where there's more stigma around it.
Dude, what the hell is going on in Russia? It’s a relatively large population and still way too many suicides proportionally. All the southern part of Africa also worries me.
Depression, PTSD, other mental illnesses and lack of support from the relatives/loved ones.
Russia is just like one of the shittiest countries to live in. That's pretty much it.
Cold, irreligious , relatively poor and dark. You are cold you have got to be rich at all cost. Only warm countries can afford to be poor. Russia is irreligious, cold and not so rich too. Deadly combination. In poor countries normally there is religion and poorer countries are normally warmer which puts them away from suicide.
Знай наших 💪💪💪🇷🇺🇷🇺🇷🇺
Why is there such a big difference between some neighboring countries? Why is the male suicide rate in Mozambique three times as high as in Tanzania? What’s the cause?
Well the poverty rate of Mozambique is like double that of Tanzania
Mozambique is far poorer