RUNNING HEAD: The Growing Trends of Suicide Rates Worldwide 1

The Growing Trends of Suicide Rates Worldwide

Ainsley R Denton

Global Studies and World Languages Academy at Tallwood High School

Gregory L Falls
The Growing Trends of Suicide Rates Worldwide 2

Abstract

Suicide worldwide has been increasing in recent years and it has started to affect a larger

group of people. It is one of the most common causes of death in many countries. This paper will

highlight the main trends of the causes, the most common being financial reasons and if the

country has a struggling economy. Another more recent, but ever-growing trend, is the media

and the ​effects​ it has on one’s mental health. Social media makes it much easier for people to be

affected by​ other people and their opinions, which is another major reason for many suicides. In

countries where people feel very pressured by family and others, such as Japan, have higher

suicide rates. There are other reasons why a person may kill themselves, but these are the most

common in many countries.

The Growing Trends of Suicide Rates Worldwide 3

Table of Contents

Introduction……………………………………………………………………….. 4

Limitations………………………………………………………………………… 5

Literature Review…………………………………………………………………. 6-7

Discussion…………………………………………………………………………. 8-14

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………… 15

Refrences………………………………………………………………………….. 16-19
The Growing Trends of Suicide Rates Worldwide 4

Introduction

Suicide is common worldwide, and it has grown more and more common in recent years.

In Japan, suicide is the leading cause of death in men among the ages of 20-44 and for women

among the ages of 15 to 34 (World Population Review, 2019). In the United States, suicide is

increasing and is currently one of the 10 leading causes of death overall in 2014 (Curtin, Warner,

Hedegaard, 2016). This rise in suicide worldwide is commonly called an epidemic, which is a

widespread increase of a disease in a community in a short time span. This distinction is fitting

because of how rapidly suicide is becoming common. Many might believe that depression and

other mental illnesses are direct causes of suicide, but that is not always the case. Similarly, those

same people might believe that all people who have depression and other mental illnesses are

automatically suicidal. In a research study, it was found that “up to 85% of patients with major

depressive disorder (MDD) or dysthymia (i.e., chronic, but less severe depression) will have

suicidal ideation, 32% will make a suicide attempt sometime during adolescence or young

adulthood, 20% will make more than one attempt, and by young adulthood, 2.5% to 7% will

​ his evidence shows that someone who is depressed isn’t

commit suicide.” (Cash, Bridge, 2010).​ T

necessarily suicidal as well. For many years, the worldwide suicide rate was actually declining,

but, in the 1990s, the rate started to rise again. And in Japan specifically, the number of people

who committed suicide was around 20,000 in the early 1990s and then shot up to around a little

over 30,000 in 1998 alone (Inoue 2016). The increasing number of suicides in all age groups

worldwide, specifically in Japan, South Korea, and the United States, can be linked to a number

of different causes, but mainly these three: economic struggles, the pressure to succeed and

follow tradition, and childhood bullying.

The Growing Trends of Suicide Rates Worldwide 5

Limitations
Even though research provides some valuable insight, it is impossible to fully know the

reason why someone committed suicide. Many people do leave suicide notes, but those

sometimes still don’t tell a full story. It is easy to say the reasons why someone committed

suicide after the fact. This paper will focus on the trends of suicide rates in different countries

rather than individuals.

Some countries have legalized physician-assisted suicide (euthanasia). But in many

studies, it is not accounted for in the suicide rate of the country. Most countries do require the

person to have a terminal illness with a certain length of time left to live. This paper will focus

on suicides that are not physician-assisted suicide but rather on the actual person committing

suicide themself.

This paper will mainly focus on the suicide rates in the United States and Japan, with

some focus on South Korea as well. The reason for this is because there has been such an

epidemic in Japan of suicide in recent years. Also, there is a high suicide rate in the United

States, but not nearly as high as Japan. The United States is used as a comparison and almost like

a constant in many studies.

The Growing Trends of Suicide Rates Worldwide 6

Literature Review

In recent decades, there has been an increase of suicide worldwide, but this is especially

so in Japan. Many studies have been conducted looking into the reasons for this. There are many

different reasons why people commit suicide, but the most common reasons for the increase have

been the economic issues within the country and also familial and social pressures.

The stated reason many adults commit suicide in Japan, South Korea, and the United

States is because of finical stress. Japan’s economy was struggling at the beginning of the 1980s.

The poverty rates and the unemployment rate were starting to rise due to the struggling economy,

but the suicide rates also started to increase (Inoue 2016). South Korea’s economy was similar to

Japan’s around this time. Their unemployment rate was also increasing, but the number of

suicides didn’t go quite as high as in Japan (Inoue 2010). In the United States, however, suicide

rates were raising regardless of how the economy was doing. The average amount of suicides

raised more from 2006-2014 than it did from 1999-2006. Also, the number of males committing

suicide was invariably higher than the number of females committing suicide (Curtin, Warner, &

Hedegaard, 2016).

However, it is not just adults that commit suicide; many children do as well. The number

one cause of death of children in Japan since 2014 has been suicide. The main reason for this is

the pressure that many kids feel to succeed. In fact, the rates increase again when they go back to

school after the summer break in September. There is also the problem of bullying in schools in

Japan because everyone is expected to fit in, and if one doesn’t, they get bullied (Autin 2017). In

the United States, black children are significantly more likely to commit suicide than white

children. In fact, the number of children who are black and committing suicide is rising while the
The Growing Trends of Suicide Rates Worldwide 7

number of white children who commit suicide is decreasing. Also, the second leading cause of

death in adolescents aged 12-19 was suicide in 2012 (Bridge 2015). The suicide rate between

10-19-year-olds did start declining in the early 2000s but increased by a significant number again

in 2010s (Curtin, Heron, Miniño, & Warner, 2018).

The Growing Trends of Suicide Rates Worldwide 8

Discussion

Japan has a history of ritual suicide called seppuku, which is suicide by disembowelment.

The practice was originally only practiced by samurai because they would rather die in honor

than fall into the hands of enemy soldiers. Because it was originally only reserved for the

samurai, it was seen as courageous. The first person to allegedly die by seppuku dates all the way

back to 712 A.D. The samurai started to rise in power and aristocracy in the 11th and 12th

centuries, which also led to a rise in seppuku. It continued to grow in popularity for centuries and

has still been practiced in modern-day. In World War II, many Japanese soldiers would commit

seppuku in front of American soldiers for the same reasons the samurai did, because they didn’t

want to die at the hands of Americans. After Japan surrendered in 1945, the outer ground of the

Imperial Palace was covered in blood because the Japanese people were committing seppuku,

apologizing to the emperor because they had lost the war (Fusé 1980). Many believe that Japan

has such high suicide rates today because of this strong history of suicidal culture and seppuku.

Even though suicide in Japan has been around for centuries, it is highly stigmatized. In

the 1990s, there was a significant spike in suicide rates that was due to the economic struggles

Japan was facing. These rates stayed consistently high from 1997 to around 2012 (Haley 2018).

The struggling economy tended to affect men much more than women because men are seen as

the head of a household and responsible for the finances. Financial hardships would take a toll

and add a huge amount of stress onto anybody. Because many men felt they couldn’t support

their family in the best way possible and were ashamed, they ended their lives (Inoue 2016). A

similar trend is starting to occur in the elderly. Many elderly parents move in with their children

and grandchildren when they become unable to care for themselves. But if a family is already
The Growing Trends of Suicide Rates Worldwide 9

struggling financially, adding another person who most likely has health issues can be tough. So

there has been a growing trend of elderly suicide because elders have started to feel like a burden

on their families. In fact, many patients who have a previous diagnosis of a disease are more

likely to commit suicide. One study looked at 19 different physical diseases: asthma, back pain,

brain injury, cancer, CHF (chronic heart failure), COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary

disease), diabetes, epilepsy, HIV/AIDS, heart disease, hypertension, migraine, multiple sclerosis,

osteoporosis, Parkinson’s, psychogenic pain, renal disorder, sleep disorders, and stroke. The

study found that 62% of the people who died from suicide were diagnosed with one of these

diseases a year before they died (Ahmedani 2017).

In the United States, healthcare can be very expensive and often is offered through

employment. If someone is unemployed or their job does not offer comprehensive health

benefits, then that person most likely does not have healthcare. According to the Commonwealth

Fund, 44 million Americans are without health insurance and 16 million are

underinsured--meaning the health insurance that they are under does not suffice for their full

needs (Alonso-Zaldivar 2019). Because people do not have sufficient healthcare, many do not go

to professionals for physical and mental health. Another problem that is more common in the

United States is mental health in the military and veterans. From 2011 to 2014, the suicide rate in

Army veterans rose by 18%. As stated before, women are much less likely to die from suicide;

but every 35 in 100,000 women veterans commit suicide. That number is considerably higher

than the civilian number of women suicides (Hester 2017).

Greece has had a struggling economy since the early 21st century. Many say the point at

which the economy first started to struggle is when Greece stopped using their currency, the
The Growing Trends of Suicide Rates Worldwide 10

drachma, and started using the Euro in January of 2001. After hosting the Olympics in 2004,

they fell into even more debt because they spent over 9 billion Euros (McBride 2017). Since

then, the economy has only declined. 2011 was the year that they struggled the most, both

financially and with their citizen’s mental health. The suicide rate in the first half of 2011 was

40% higher than the entirety of 2010. According to the national suicide hotline, the main reason

was the financial struggles that people experienced from the previous year, including the

inability to pay back their personal debts. Greece was not the only country though that was

facing economic problems. Around this time, many other developed nations were struggling,

such as the United States and many other countries in the European Union. After the recession in

the United States, there were approximately 4,750 more suicide deaths, and about 1,330 were

due to the rising unemployment. The age and gender group that had the most excess suicides

during this time period were men aged 45-64. This is similar to the economic crisis that

happened in Southeast Asia in the late 1990s. The suicide rates rose by 39% in Japan, and it

nearly doubled in South Korea, which was approximately 10,000 more suicides than usual (Van

Hal 2015).

Men and public stigma

In nearly every country, men are more likely to die from suicide than women. According

to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, “In 2017, men died by suicide 3.54x more

often than women” (AFSP 2019). However, women aged 14-25 are twice as likely to be

depressed than men. Even though men are more likely to die from suicide than women, women

actually attempt suicide more often due to the larger population of depressed females. Women

are hospitalized for a failed suicide attempt 1.5 more times than men. A reason for this could be
The Growing Trends of Suicide Rates Worldwide 11

attributed to the fact that men generally choose more violent ways to kill themselves, such as

hanging or by firearms, while women tend to overdose--making it easier for medical professions

to revive them (Navaneelan 2017). In the United States, in particular, it is much easier for a man

to kill himself using a firearm because of the large percentage of men who own one. A Pew

Research study shows that 6 in 10 gun owners in the United States are men (Horowitz 2017).

When women first start puberty is when they are most at risk for depression and other mental

illnesses. But later in life, the huge gap between men and women who have depression begins to

close (Albert 2015). Another significant factor is hegemonic masculinity, defined as the

traditional gender role of a man, having to be stoic, autonomous, etc. Many boys are raised being

told that they cannot cry and have to be tough. This causes many males to feel like they do not

have anyone to talk to about emotions, so everything stays bottled up, which eventually gets to

be too much. Research has shown that self-shame is a huge factor as to why many people do not

get the help that they deserve and need. They see their mental illness as shameful to both

themselves and their families. There are also many stereotypes that people believe that people

with some sort of mental illness are all crazy and deranged and have no hope of a better future.

That public stigma and stereotype can slowly evolve into more self-hatred that further prevents

people from seeking professional help. In a survey conducted by the Substance Abuse and

Mental Health Services Administration; it was found fewer than 10% of people with a mental

illness of some sort receive the services that are recommended, such as vocational rehabilitation,

case management, or day treatment (Corrigan 2004).

The Growing Trends of Suicide Rates Worldwide 12

Media

A factor that has come up in recent years regarding the rising rates of suicide in

developed countries is the impact that social media and other technology has on people. A major

example of media having an effect on suicide is Netflix’s show ​13 Reasons Why.​ Netflix released

13 Reasons Why​ on March 31, 2017. The show is an adaption of the best-selling book by Jay

Asher. The storyline follows a high school girl named Hannah Baker who eventually commits

suicide and highlights the reasons why she killed herself. However, the show turned very graphic

when it actually showed her killing herself. Netflix changed how the book was originally written

and had the main character kill herself in a much more graphic and violent way. In the Netflix

series, she slit her wrists in a bathtub; (Netflix 2017) while in the book, she overdosed by

“swallowing a handful of pills” (Asher 2017). Netflix got so much hate that they altered the

episode and it got re-released in July of 2019, over two years since it was originally released.

Many people argued that Netflix was romanticizing and glorifying suicide because the scene was

so in-depth and that it was unnecessarily graphic. A study was conducted to see if there was a

link between suicide rates of adolescents and the release of ​13 Reasons Why.​ The study did, in

fact, find that in the following months of the release of the first seasons, there was a spike in

suicide rates in the United States. Prior to the release--between January 2013 and December

2017--, there was a total of 180,655 reported suicides in adolescents aged 10-17 years old. Also

prior to the first season release, men were more likely to commit suicide over females by nearly

double. After March 31st, 2017, there were nearly 200 more deaths due to suicide in the

following two months, which was an aberration. Another very uncommon trend that followed the
The Growing Trends of Suicide Rates Worldwide 13

first season of ​13 Reasons Why​ was that females were committing suicide more often than men

(Bridge 2019).

All types of media can have an impact on a person. A sociologist named David Phillips

coined the term “Werther effect” in 1974. The term came from a book published in 1774 titled

​ hich has the main character dying by suicide. The book

The Sorrows of Young Werther, w

became very popular in Europe, and, eventually, the suicide rates did rise across the continent. In

fact, many country’s governments banned the book because of the huge increase in suicide. The

Werther effect says that if a person is around suicide, then they themself are more likely to

commit suicide. Phillips conducted a study that spanned 20 years (1948-1967) that took the

suicide rates from the US Department of Health two years prior to calculate what the expected

suicide rate should be for the next year. The most popular newspaper at the time that this study

started, New York Daily News, had a day dedicated each month to publishing the suicides from

that month onto the front page. Phillips found that the day after the front-page story, the number

of suicides significantly increased (Hittner 2007). In 2001, many US government agencies and

other private healthcare agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and the National

Institute of Mental Health, put out a report discouraging news companies from covering suicide.

The report, titled ​Reporting on suicide: Recommendations for the Media​, suggested that

newspapers do not report on suicides in-depth to discourage imitation of the suicide. Instead, the

report suggests putting suicide prevention and helplines in place. Many studies found though that

it was not the number of articles that mentioned suicide, but instead the quality of how it was

written. Suicides increased more after an article was written about a previous suicide if the place

and methods were described in detail (Tatum 2011).

The Growing Trends of Suicide Rates Worldwide 14

Something similar in more modern-day is a growing trend called “net suicide.” Net

suicide is when two people meet online through some sort of social media and agree on a suicide

pact. A suicide pact is not a new concept by any means, but what is new is the addition of the

internet. In Japan, as many as 60 people die from net suicide each year, and that number

continues to grow (Naito 2007). In February of 2000, a 17-year-old Austrian girl and a young

man committed suicide in Norway. The young man had posted on an online discussion group

about suicide saying that he was suicidal and wanted to kill himself with another person. Many

girls did contact him because they were interested, but he chose the 17-year-old. This story

rapidly spread in the media, but national suicide organizations successfully kept it contained

(Mehlum 2000).
The Growing Trends of Suicide Rates Worldwide 15

Conclusion

The growing suicide rates worldwide can be linked to three major trends: financial

struggles, media, and societal pressure to succeed. A key component of many countries’ suicide

rates is how the country’s economy was performing. In a country where the economy had much

debt and overall struggling, the suicide rates continued to grow with each passing year. Many

people, more specifically and often men, felt that they were failing and a burden to their family.

Which also ties in another major reason for climbing suicide rates. Many cultures are built on

norms; such as men being the head of the household or a child to be the best. And if a person

does not fit into these societal norms, they feel like an outcast and the only solution is to commit

suicide. A fairly recent trend is due to the growing media in people’s lives. Multiple studies have

been conducted proving that suicide in media actually increases suicide rates. It is very important

that people are aware of these major trends and the impact suicide is having on the world.

Currently, suicide is amongst the top five causes of death in nearly all countries. If change isn’t

taken by national governments and other major health organizations, then the suicide rates will

become an epidemic that spirals out of control. The first step countries must take towards suicide

prevention is to raise awareness to their citizens. There is currently a large stigma in many

countries around suicide and mental health in general. If that stigma is not removed through

raising awareness, then there is no hope for those affected by mental health and suicidal

thoughts. So many people are left in the dark over the severity of suicide rates around the world

and do not realize how widespread the trends are. Preventive measures need to be taken by all

countries before suicide is the number one cause of death in the world in all age groups.
The Growing Trends of Suicide Rates Worldwide 16

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