Epidemiology of Suicide - Epidemiology

Epidemiology

A 2006 report by the World Health Organisation(WHO) states that nearly a million people take their own lives every year, more than those murdered or killed in war.WHO figures show a suicide takes place somewhere in the world every 40 seconds. Suicide rates are highest in Europe's Baltic states, where around 40 people per 100,000 die by suicide each year, second in line is in the Sub-Saharan Africawhere 32 people per 100,000 die by suicide each year. The lowest rates are found mainly in Latin America and a few countries in Asia.In 1998, the World Health Organizationranked suicide as the twelfth leading cause of death worldwide.In most countries the incidence of suicides is higher than the incidence of intentional homicides. As many as 60,000 people commit suicide in Russiaevery year;approximately 30,000 people die by suicide each year in the United States;over 30,000 kill themselves in Japan;and about 250,000 commit suicide each year in China.In western countries men commit suicide at four times the rate of women. Women are more likely to attempt suicidethan men.The countries of the former Soviet Blocand East Asiahave the highest suicide ratein the world. The region with the lowest suicide rate is Latin America.Up to at least the 1950s, it was the Republic of Ireland which had the lowest suicide rate in the world, as reported by an Irish TV news report in 2007. Chinais the only country in the world where the rate of suicide by women matches that of men, with statistics even showing a slightly higher number of female cases.According to the National Institute of Mental Health, suicide contagion is a serious problem, especially for young people. Suicide can be facilitated in vulnerable teens by exposure to real or fictional accounts of suicide, including media coverage of suicide, such as intensive reporting of the suicide of a celebrity or idol.