Updated – 3-7-2011
A few days ago I posted about suicide rates. Then, I came across this article talking about the happiest states. I decided to visualize the happiness data so you could compare and contrast it against the suicide rates. Interestingly, some states, like Wyoming and Alaska have both high suicide rates and very high rates of happiness. Happiness rankings were based on the following measures: life evaluation, emotional health, work environment, physical healthy; healthy behavior, and basic access. Both maps were made in minutes using this free state statistics software.
Happiness by State
Suicide Rate by State
The rate is per 100,000 (2006)
———-Original Post on Suicide Rates———
The other day I was talking to a colleague who was considering taking a job in Seattle, Washington. However, he was hesitant to take a job in place with so much rain. This led to a debate about the relationship between weather, depression, and suicide. This isn’t a topic to be taken lightly, but there are some interesting relationships when you map the suicide rates of different states.
Data comes from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. It is interesting how suicide rates are higher in the West. Might this have something to do with more lax gun control policies that make suicide attempts more likely to succeed? I don’t have any agenda here, but feel that state visualizations like these are important tools to better understand national trends on serious issues like suicide. If you would like help adding a map like this to your site, please contact us.
Addendum – 4/10/2011
If you are interested in this topic you should check out the work done by economists Daly, Oswald, Wilson and Wu on The Happiness-Suicide Paradox (forthcoming Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization). They find a spatial relationship between suicide and happiness after accounting for individual characteristics like race, income, education and more. They’re not suggesting that happier people are more likely to take their own lives. Rather, that “personal unhappiness may be at its worst when surrounded by those who are relatively more content with their lives.” In other words, cheerful people impose negative externalities on discontent people. Definitely, a thought provoking theory worthy of further exploration.
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The elderly susides of retirement states should likely not be mixed with those of non-retireees. It does not paint the correct picture.
Terminal illnesses sometimes cause a vague area of what to write as the cause of death…for example…a guy with terminal cancer died from a motercycle accident….it’s likley not the motercycle accident. (As someone who knew him, it was his intent not to tollerate too much more).
I believe there is a natural correlation between happiness and suicide. Imagine the life of a manic depressive patient who is either high on life or consumed by it. I believe, albeit to a lessor degree, there are a number of people who would answer to a survey that they are enjoying a happy life, but that their mental state is fragile. These people would be more prone to having a bout of depression if their real or imagined state of happiness was taken from them by a divorce, financial loss, or traumatic event. Inversely, people who accept the status quo, who could actually be labelled complacent, would be more accepting of adverse events as the normal and fluid course of life. I believe to a great degree people who live in metropolitan areas fall into the latter category. They witness terrible things frequently and thus are inure to them in a sense. Looking at the map the high suicide states tend to be more rural. Being from a small town myself I know, you make one mistake, there is no escaping it without moving away, which is not always a viable option. A life-altering event would not only shatter their supposed happiness, it would possibly alienate them from the only world they know. When its good its good, when its bad its unbearable. Thats small town life.
This is a cool idea. I wonder if your correlation has something to do with higher expectations and therefore greater disappointment in the happy states. One thing I don’t understand on your suicide chart is the use of percentages. If your rates are per 100,000, then what do the percentages mean? Don’t you mean e.g. 16/100,000 rather than 16%? If those are percentages, what are they percentages of?
Thanks for your comment. You are right, the percentages shouldn’t be there. 16 means 16 per 100,000.
Re: the comment, “In other words, cheerful people impose negative externalities on discontent people. Definitely, a thought provoking theory worthy of further exploration.”, I can tell you, I am one of those who has considered suicide as a result of this very “imposition”. It is spurred on by feelings of inadequately being able to provide for my family, when I feel everyone else can.
I am a highly educated, Double Master’s Degree grad, and earned multiple six figures, only to be affected by the recent economic conditions. I know others who have not discussed this desire, but seem to exhibit similar thought patterns, and perhaps I thought that they might have similar tendencies, knowing fully well, that Self Destructive thought patterns are very subjective and tied to perceptions of moral, family and religious obligations to “Stick Around”.
I am subject to those thoughts as well, and why I have not gone through with it…
How did I get on this website? It’s nearly 2AM my time, and I was looking for an interactive XML map to use on a site of my own. This page up on page 1 of Google search “Interactive XML Maps), though not in the top 5.
I felt compelled to write given how close this topic was to me.
I will likely never meet any of you; still, I think the topic is important for research and then to be used to talk about the “elephant” in the room (if it is an elephant, and not a fly). It may help others find a way to vet this paradox of inadequacy they’re dealing!
Good bye…
For those who do not contemplate their immediate end and the loved ones left behind, the suicide act is incomprehensible. Largely because in most instances, absent certain mental illnesses, there is no intriguing plan to self-annihilation. It shocks everyone. However, it appears as a momentary consideration that has no “plan B” option. No opt out afterwards. Fini.
Arbitrary state lines have no impact on the decision process (happiness or suicide). Hence, the cited research appears flawed ab initio.
People, in general, desire to place blame and assign reasons. Randomness and chaos are unfulfilling. Hence, the ending act appears deeper than it may really be. It is reasonable to assume that “the reason” one did it is as diverse as the actors who succeeded.
The association of happiness and suicide, from first blush, is rather odd. Since they run on different continua. The stereotype is that unhappy, depressed individuals seek a way out. While there are ample reasons in the USA to be unhappy (the economy, for example) and depressed (the hooligans in Washington DC, for sure), the majority of citizens are not escaping by the muzzle. Some other choice must drive them.
Obviously, some people are reporting a level of happiness. Happiness is, by and large, an illusion. (It is the driving force of consumerism in the US.) While everyone claims to “feel it”, it is usually accompanied by things and situations rather than an inner plane of self-awareness. And, it dissipates as quickly as it arrives for US [sic] materialists. How compelling is this transitory emotion? When one’s brand new ride gets dinged in the mall parking lot, as unhappy as they may be they rarely grab their piece and end themselves. Other outlets are employed.
I like the USA flash map (altho still problematic with WP 3.2) but not the association above, the underlying research (emphasis on “lying”), its assumptions nor its “results”. Social scientists rank one below used car salesmen and their product is just as undependable in actual use. [FYI: Tengo dos grados de ciencia sociales.]