About 10 out of every 100,000 Americans commits suicide annually, according to new data released Tuesday by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
That is slightly lower than the rate across all the organization’s member countries for which data are available, and about half the rates in Hungary and South Korea. The rate is lowest in Greece, where 2.9 out of every 100,000 people commit suicide.
Source: O.E.C.D. 1. Three-year average.In every country for which data are available, male suicide rates are at least twice as high as female suicide rates.
In the Slovak Republic, where the ratio is highest, the suicide rate for men is nearly seven times as high as it is for women.
Suicide rates in O.E.C.D. countries have generally been trending downward over the last two decades, although there are significant exceptions. Male suicide rates in South Korea, for example, almost tripled from 1990 to 2006, to 32 from 12 for every 100,000. The organization attributes this rise to “economic downturn, weakening social integration and the erosion of the traditional family support base for the elderly.”