Did You Know? Suicide Rates and Population

DYK? Recent studies indiciate that, in America at least, areas with the highest population densities appear to have the lowest rates of suicide. New York State has the third lowest in the country (at 6.2 percent of annual deaths) and the District of Columbia second. The emptiest states seem to also have the emptiest hearts. Suicide rates are highest in Montana, Nevada, Alaska, New Mexico, and Wyoming respectively.

I found this statistic in a great November New York Magazine article about the false myth of cities being lonely isolating places. Author Jennifer Senior married the above findings (from New York State’s Office of Mental Health) with theories from the great French sociologist (and hero of mine) Emile Durkheim and his legendary studies of suicide. Fundamentally, Durkheim asserted that suicide resulted from feelings of profound isolation (as opposed to moral failing) and failure to find one’s place in the machine work of society.

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