Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), one of sociology’s pioneers, showed that social forces are at work even in such an intensely personal action such as suicide.

He found that men, Protestants, wealthy people, and the unmarried each had much higher suicide rates than women, Catholics and Jews, the poor, and married people. This still holds true to this day here in the United States. Durkheim explained these differences in terms of social integration: Categories of people with strong social ties had low suicide rates, and more individualistic people had higher suicide rates.


In Durkheim’s time, men had much more freedom than women. But despite its advantages, freedom weakens social ties and thus increases the rate of suicide.

Likewise, more individualistic Protestants were more likely to commit suicide than more traditional Catholics and Jews, whose rituals encourages social ties. The wealthy have more freedom than the poor- but once again, at the cost of a higher suicide rate.

In 2007, in the U.S. there were 12.9 recorded suicides for every 100,000 white people, which is more than twice the rate of African Americans.

For both races, suicide was more common among men than women. White men are almost four times more likely to take their lives than white women. The higher suicide rate among white people and men reflects their greater wealth and freedom, just as the lower rate among women and people of color reflects their limited social choices.

Just as Derkheim did a century ago, we can see general sociological patterns in the personal actions of particular individu


In a U.S. city by city comparison data shows that the happier and wealthier the city the higher the suicide rate: (rates are per 100,000 inhabitants) City Data from the National Association of County and City Health Officials [2]

1.Las Vegas, NV – 34.5
2.Colorado Springs, CO – 26.1
3.Tucson, AZ – 25
4.Sacramento, CA 22.7
5.Albuquerque, NM 21
6.Mesa, AZ 19.6
7.Miami, FL 17.1
8.Denver, CO 16.2
9.Portland, OR 15.2
10.Jacksonville, FL 15


http://theallegiant.com/suicide-rates-in-america/


...INTERESTING,,,,at least , Im less likely to commit suicide

I don't disagree with the statistics, but I completely disagree with the assumption it is about more or less freedom. That is liberal bias trash.
Some of the prevalent reasons wealthy people have higher suicide rates are the ability to buy and use drugs, money issues like people wanting them for their money not love(no real personal relationships), Money being lost in trades or financial transactions(remember the high suicides when the banks collapsed in the 30's). There are a host of social and financial pressures unrelated to "freedom" that account for higher suicide rates among wealthy people.
JMO

I'd like to point out that the labels "Protestant" and "Catholic" are sometimes used for people who have no actual devotion to the Christian faith. They are cultural Protestants and cultural Catholics.

The claim that freedom weakens social ties could be used to explain a variety of social ills, not just suicide.

Here are the top 9 countries for suicide rates. Seems to me aside from Greenland(maybe the cold weather?)it looks like these countries are ones that have less freedom.

Rank Country Male Female Average Year
1 Greenland[2][3] (more info) 39.3 19.7 108.1 2010[4]
2 South Korea[5] (more info) 33.8 8 31.7 2011
3 Lithuania[6] (more info) 29.2 10.5 31.6 2012
4 Guyana (more info) 26 8.9 26.4 2006
5 Kazakhstan (more info) 28.2 6.7 25.6 2008
6 Belarus[7][8] 31.2 4.8 22.9 2011
7 China China[9] (more info) 24.6 8.4 22.23 2011
8 Slovenia[10] 20.6 8.7 21.8 2011
9 Hungary[11] 21.1 6.8 21.7

BTW..the United States is ranked 33rd..pretty high also.

Don't think freedom has anything to do with suicide, it's cultural, social,and economic pressures that create depression.

I agree. IT seems logical to me , that the less one feels a 'connection/need/responsibility' towards others, the more isolated they make themselves when it comes time to deal with setbacks and obstacles


that type of excessive 'individualism' is a veiled isolation, which of course, translates into lost ties and lost lines of support

and a harder time of life emotionally,,,,,


we see so many of the famous spiraling, I think, because they have no REAL or substantial ties, people have just taken their money and told them what they want to hear and no one really or truly bonds with or cares about them in any substantial way,,,

I don't think that's the 'freedom' being spoken of,, I think its more a cultural tie

meaning, 'individualism/egocetric',,,the more egocentric(free) of a culture (in relation to EACH OTHER) people adapt, the more isolated they are and more likely to commit suicide,,

Now this is more relevant
How you come up with different degree's of "freedom" instead of what you state here about isolation I just don't see that.I wholehearted agree with your above statement