My boss told me today that Sweden has the highest rate of suicides due to the 1.9 hours of sunlight during the winter. Is that true?
A. L.
I read somewhere the other day that Sweden has the highest suicide rate in the world.
J. I.
False. According to the latest data published by the World Health Organization [1], Sweden ranks #35 for males and #23 for females among reporting countries (and Sweden takes statistics rather seriously).
Country Year Males Females LITHUANIA 03 74.3 13.9 RUSSIAN FEDERATION 02 69.3 11.9 BELARUS 03 63.3 10.3 KAZAKHSTAN 02 50.2 8.8 ESTONIA 02 47.7 9.8 UKRAINE 02 46.7 8.4 SLOVENIA 03 45.0 12.0 LATVIA 03 45.0 9.7 HUNGARY 03 44.9 12.0 SRI LANKA 91 44.6 16.8 JAPAN 02 35.2 12.8 FINLAND 03 31.9 9.8 CROATIA 03 31.4 8.4 BELGIUM 97 31.2 11.4 REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA 03 30.6 4.8 CZECH REPUBLIC 03 27.5 6.8 AUSTRIA 03 27.1 9.3 FRANCE 01 26.6 9.1 POLAND 02 26.6 5.0 SWITZERLAND 01 26.5 10.6 REPUBLIC OF KOREA 02 24.7 11.2 CUBA 96 24.5 12.0 ROMANIA 02 23.9 4.7 SLOVAKIA 02 23.6 3.6 IRELAND 01 21.4 4.1 BULGARIA 03 21.0 7.3 CHINA (Hong Kong SAR) 02 20.7 10.2 GERMANY 01 20.4 7.0 BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 91 20.3 3.3 DENMARK 00 20.2 7.2 AUSTRALIA 01 20.1 5.3 NEW ZEALAND 00 19.8 4.2 ICELAND 01 19.6 5.6 SWEDEN 01 18.9 8.1 PORTUGAL 02 18.9 4.9 MAURITIUS 00 18.8 5.2 CANADA 01 18.7 5.2 LUXEMBOURG 03 18.5 3.5 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 01 17.6 4.1 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 94 17.4 5.0 SURINAME 92 16.6 7.2 URUGUAY 90 16.6 4.2 NORWAY 02 16.1 5.8 KYRGYZSTAN 03 16.1 3.2 PUERTO RICO 92 16.0 1.9 GUYANA 94 14.6 6.5 TURKMENISTAN 98 13.8 3.5 CHINA (Selected rural & urban areas) 99 13.0 14.8 NETHERLANDS 03 12.7 5.9 SPAIN 02 12.6 3.9 Suicide rates per 100,000 (only top 50 of 99 countries shown)
Source: December 2005, World Health Organization [1]
This urban legend traces back to a series of events that occurred in 1960.
On March 6, 1960, the New York Times published a small paragraph on a back page with a wry comment [2]:
It looks as though for the first time in history the age of mass leisure is being approached, but material well-being does not necessarily lead to happiness. In Sweden and Switzerland, which the highest living standard in Europe, they shoot themselves in great numbers; there suicide rates are the highest in the world with the exception of Japan, where it is a national pastime. -- The Earl of Arran in the House of Lords
A few weeks later, the New York Times published an article entitled "High Suicide Rate Puzzles Sweden." It refers to an interview from the same week with Prof. Torgny Segerstedt of Uppsala University [3]:
One sociologist who thinks there may be some relation between scurity [sic] and suicide in Sweden suggested in an interview this week that was high time a research team tackled the subject. The sociologist, Prof. Torgny Seterstedt [sic], Rector of Upsala [sic] University, emphasized, however, that his theory should not be considered an attempt to disparage the welfare state.
The article continues by citing the latest available statistics for suicide rate. [It is unclear how many total countries were included in the 1957 data.]
- Japan - 24.0
- Austria - 23.9
- Denmark - 22.5
- Finland - 21.9
- Switzerland - 21.6
- Sweden - 19.9
Suicide rates per 100,000
Source: 1957 data, New York Times [3]
Additionally, the figure for the United States was 10.0, for Canada 7.5, and for Norway, 7.4. [Here note that Norway serves as an obvious counterexample to the claim, as Norway is a very similar social democratic country.]
All of this apparently got the attention of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. A few months later, at a Republican breakfast in Chicago, Eisenhower asserted that middle-of-the-road government was superior to socialism and mentioned that he had been reading lately about an "experiment of almost complete paternalism" in a "fairly friendly European country" [4]:
This country has a tremendous record for socialistic operation, following a socialistic philosophy, and the record shows that their rate of suicide has gone up almost unbelievably and I think they were almost the lowest nation in the world for that. Now, they have more than twice our rate. Drunkenness has gone up. Lack of ambition is discernible on all sides. Therefore, with that kind of example, let's always remember Lincoln's admonition. Let's do in the federal Government only those things that people themselves cannot do at all, or cannot so well do in their individual capacities. [5]
Eisenhower did not name the country. But Swedish Prime Minister Tage Erlander noted that "nobody can avoid the impression that Eisenhower meant one of the Nordic countries" [6].
Although Erlander "did not say he believed the President referred to Sweden specifically" [6], the Swedish daily newspapers all immediately jumped on Eisenhower, and in general, Eisenhower's comment was interpreted as referring specifically to Sweden. Neighboring Norway seemed happy with this arrangement. The Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang joked: "It's a good thing Sweden so readily was willing to be hurt by President Eisenhower's broadside against the 'fairly friendly' Socialist governed country in Europe. That saves Norway and Denmark from having to be offended" [7]. Diplomatically, Norwegian Prime Minister Einar Gerhardsen suggested that [U.S.] Congress dispatch a team to study conditions in Sweden. "After such a trip, I think the delegation would find that Sweden could serve as a model for most countries" [8].
Eisenhower's remark and the ensuing media attention is now commonly attributed to have formed the basis of the urban legend [9, 10].
Several years later, in 1966, Nobel laureate in economics Gunnar Myrdal made an observation about suicides and the interpretation of the suicide rate statistics [11]:
This statistic is affected by a heavy bias which raised the apparent Swedish rate in comparison with all, or almost all, other countries. In England, for example, suicide is still a crime. In most countries, particularly the Catholic ones, it is a grave sin against the Creator. In secularized Sweden, it is not a crime and not a sin, though a regrettable deviation from normal behavior. When committed with a sane mind it is gradually becoming viewed, however, as almost a human right and a civil liberty. In any case, it is strictly a personal and family matter. Among the absolute taboos in Swedish journalism, which no newspaperman would think of transgressing, is the rule never to give publicity to suicides or divorces -- they are assumed to belong to an intimate sphere from which outsiders should keep away. Thus, there is much less temptation in Sweden than other countries for relatives to press for a verdict of accidental death when a man falls from a window or a woman takes too large a dose of sleeping pills.
Revised June 10, 2006 by jrc