1. In the USA, the suicide rate (SR) is 12 out of 100,000. 78% of
these are men. This implies that for men, the suicide rate is 19 out
of 100,000, or 0.0001872. (1)
2. 77% of Indian families are involved in farming (2)
3. There are 15,000 farmer-suicides in India per year for a several
year average (2)
4. "Agriculture is the means of livelihood of about two--thirds of
the work force in the country."(3)
5. There are about 380,000,000 male farmers in India. This is based
on
(laborParticipationRate)*(PercentageOfLaborMale)*(TotalPercentageInFarming)*(TotalPopulationOfIndia)
=(0.37)*(0.67)*(700M)*(0.70)*(1100M) = 191,000,000 (4)
NOTE: I used a more conservative estimate than the 77% found in point
2, which uses 77%.
6. There are 15,000 suicides a year in India. Using one of my
estimates, 93% of the suicides are males based on a couple of
assumptions. Let's use 100% of the suicides are males, just to
strengthen my case. Therefore, the suicide rate in India amongst male
farm workers is: (15,000/191,000,000) = 7.85X10^-5, which is
0.0000785.
This means that an American male is 2.38 times more likely to commit
suicide than the Indian farmers.
1. http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/dvp/suicide/SuicideDataSheet.pdf
2.
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/10/02/8387511/index.htm
3. http://www.indianembassy.org/dydemo/agriculture.htm
4. http://www.fao.org/sd/WPdirect/WPre0108.htm
In 2004:
* Suicide was the eleventh leading cause of death for all
ages (CDC 2005).
* Suicides accounted for 1.4% of all deaths in the U.S.
(CDC 2005).
* More than 32,000 suicides occurred in the U.S. This is
the equivalent of 89 suicides per day; one suicide
every 16 minutes or 11.05 suicides per 100,000
population (CDC 2005).
* The National Violent Death Re****ting System
examined toxicology tests of those who committed
suicide in 13 states: 33.3% tested positive for alcohol;
16.4% for opiates; 9.4% for cocaine; 7.7% for
marijuana; and 3.9% for amphetamines (Karch et al.
2006).
Racial and Ethnic Disparities
Gender Disparities
* Males take their own lives at nearly four times the rate
of females and represent 78.8% of all U.S. suicides
(CDC 2005).
* During their lifetime, women attempt suicide about
two to three times as often as men (Krug et al. 2002).
* Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death for males
and the sixteenth leading cause for females (CDC
2005).
* Among males, adults ages 75 years and older have the
highest rate of suicide (rate 37.4 per 100,000
population) (CDC 2005).
* Among females, those in their 40s and 50s have the
highest rate of suicide (rate 8.0 per 100,000
population) (CDC 2005).
* Firearms are the most commonly used method of
suicide among males (56.8%) (CDC 2005).
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