A podcast lecturer just pointed out that the rich are more likely to commit suicide than the poor.
I’ve done a quick search and I can’t verify this statistic.
Does anyone know?
I don’t think any statistic on this is going to be meaningful without a better definition of terms. Are you talking worldwide? The US? What defines “the rich”? “The poor”?
If this person was a lecturer worth paying attention to, they should be able to cite their source for that statistic.
It’s not perfect, but I googled suicide rate income correlation and found that, if anything studies show what you’d expect - a negative correlation between income and suicide (lower income = higher rate).
Also, unemployment is a big predictor.
are the stats controlled for confounding factors, like ethnic background? Blacks are known to have lower rate than whites/asians, and this article Suicide Among Hispanics --- United States, 1997--2001 indicates that Hispanics have lower rate than national average. The Hispanic bit is all the more interesting given that they are younger than national average whereas “conventional wisdom” is that young people are supposed to be more prone to suicide.
Given that both blacks and Hispanics are poorer than national average, maybe their stats are creating an illusion of correlation that would be less obvious or even non-existent when considering the distribution just for a single ethnic group.