Culture - Integrative Strength

Suicide Rates in China, Selected European Countries, and the USA, 2003

Note: Number of suicides per 100,000 of the population. * Selected rural and urban areas in China; ** Hong Kong SAR

Source: World Health Organization, Most Recent Years Available. Data as of May 2003. Downloaded in August 2005 from WHO web site at: www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suiciderates/en/print.html

The above figures were created with data published on the WHO web site in 2005. They show estimated suicide rates for selected rural and urban areas in China, Hong Kong, the United States of America and selected European countries.

Eastern Europe and the Russian Republic have, by far, the highest suicide rates worldwide. In Lithuania, suicide rates among males are almost 13 times higher than in Greece - 75.6 as compared to 5.7 per 100,000 of the population. Most of Eastern Europe has high male suicide rates. However, one can also find quite high suicide rates in Hungary and Finland.

China's male suicide rate of about 13 per 100,000 of the population is comparable to the suicide rates in the US, Spain, or the United Kingdom. But the female suicide rate is much higher. In fact, with the exception of Lithuania, China may be the country with the highest suicide rate among females in the world.

China's high suicide rate among females has been the subject of several studies in recent years. According to this research, it is especially women in rural areas, who are committing suicide. Apparently, the fundamental political and economic transformation has partially eroded China's social fabric in rural areas. Labor migration, strict family planning laws, and the growing modernization gap between booming urban areas and remote rural hinterlands are contributing to the disruption of traditional family ties. These anomic tendencies are mirrored in growing divorce rates.