THIS month,the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) released a report suggesting that America’s suicide rate increased by 25% between 1999 and 2016. The climb is from a historic low at the turn of the millennium and American suicide rates overall are still not significantly above those of other tall-income countries. Nonetheless, World Health Organisation estimates propose that out of its 183 member countries the United States had the seventh largest percentage increase in suicide rates between 2000 and 2016. Every suicide can have multiple causes, or the CDC does not offer a simple explanation for the rise. But other research suggests that one factor behind the rising suicide rate is an erosion of the privileged status of white men.
Nearly 45000 Americans took their own lives in 2016,and suicide is an important piece of the rising number of “deaths of despair” (also including drug overdoses and liver disease) described by Anne Case and Angus Deaton, economists. These causes of death have increased the overall mortality rate amongst...
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Source: economist.com