Suicide

From the statistical mills of the World Health Organization comes a new tabulation of the death rates by suicide in 26 countries for which recent (1953) and reliable data are available. Notable absentees: the U.S.S.R. and all the Iron Curtain countries. Most of the English-speaking nations are in the middle of the list, but otherwise no clear pattern emerges. Some of the statistics (in death rates per 100,000 for each sex for the year):

Total Male Female Denmark 24.1 32.3 16.0

Austria 23.4 32.7 15.3

Switzerland 21.8 34.1 10.1

Japan 20.5 24.5 16.5

Sweden 18.6 28.2 9.0

West Germany 18.2 25.7 11.7

Finland 17.4 28.5 7.3

France 15.3 24.0 7.2

Union of South Africa* 11.9 19.4 44.4

England & Wales 10.8 14.2 7.6

United States 10.1 16.1 4.3

White 10.8 17.2 4.6

Nonwhite 3.8 6.4 1.3

Norway 7.7 11.0 4.3

Netherlands 6.5 8.5 4.6

Italy 6.4 9.2 3.9

Spain 5.9 9.1 2.9

Scotland 5.5 7.7 3.5

Northern Ireland 3.3 4.7 2.0

Ireland 2.3 3.3 1.2

The WHO statisticians offer no explanation on why Norway's rate should be so much lower than those in the rest of Scandinavia, or The Netherlands' so much lower than neighboring Germany's. Nor is there an explanation of the equally puzzling question of why such a war-racked country as Austria figures in the same high bracket as long peaceful and orderly Switzerland and Sweden. Possible answer: the extreme of security may be as deadly to the human spirit as the extreme of insecurity.

* "Europeans"only.

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