|
 |
Suicide Rates in China, Selected European
Countries, and the USA, 2008 |
|
Male |
Female |
|
 |
 |
|
Note: Number of suicides per 100,000 of
the population. * Selected rural and urban areas in China; ** Hong Kong
SAR; In parenthesis: Year of most recent available statistics. |
Source: World Health Organization, Most
Recent Years Available. Data as of 2008. Downloaded on 23 February 2009
from WHO web site at: www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suiciderates/en/print.html |
The above figures were created with data
published on the WHO web site in 2008. 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 Federation
have, by far, the highest suicide rates worldwide. In Lithuania, suicide
rates among males are almost 12 times higher than in Greece - 68.1 as
compared to 5.9 per 100,000 of the population. Most of Eastern Europe
has high male suicide rates. However, one can also find 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, 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.
|
Literature:
Elvin, Mark (1984): Female Virtue and the State in China. In: Past
and Present, Vol. 104, 111-152. (Famous article on female suicide out
of chastity.)
Phillips, Michael R. / Li, Xianyun /
Zhang, Yanping (2002): Suicide Rates in China, 1995-1999" In: Lancet,
Vol. 359, March 9: 835-840.
Witke, Roxanne (1967): Mao Tse-tung, Women
and Suicide. In: The China Quarterly, Vol. 31
Wu, Jane Jia-jing (1991): Suicides and suicide survivors of the Cultural
Revolution. In: Bushnell, P. Timothy, et al., eds. (1991): State
organized terror: the case of violent internal repression (Boulder,
Colo.: Westview) 289-302 |
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
This data section was updated on 18 December 2011 |
 |
|