i just came across these numbers and found them interesting. i'll list the top ten then some other noteworthy countries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... icide_rate

per 100,000 people.

1 Lithuania 40.2
2 Belarus 35.1
3 Russia 34.3
4 Kazakhstan 29.2
5 Hungary 27.7
6 Guyana 27.2
7 South Korea 26.1
8 Slovenia 25.6
9 Latvia 24.3
10 Japan 24.0

18 France 18.0
43 U.S. 11.0
67 Israel 6.2

some countries like iran, syria, jordan, egypt and jamaica apparently don't have numbers on this.

one of these countries is not like the others.

I know this game! It's Egypt. Because it doesn't have an "a" in it's name

[Game show announcer voice] Tell him what he's won Johnny!

I thought it was Jamaica because they don't blow each other up...

you're not thinking outside of the box here

Yeah - but how many suicidal people are blown up by palestinians before they get the chance?

There's never been a suicide in Iran, just like how there are no homosexuals either.

Per how many population are those numbers? I figure it must be 10,000 or maybe 100,000 but that would seem low.

8 of the top 10 I can see belonging in that list, but I was suprised to see Japan and South Korea. Then again maybe they just have more accurate reporting compared to other Asian countries.

per 100,000. sorry.

They probably also have much older populations (at least Japan) compared to other countries.

Sorry ass Soviets

i could see wanting to kill myself if i lived here:

these lithuanians look really happy though

Japan's in worse shape than most people know. Straight outta today's news:

Girls' suicide leaves dozens ill from fumes

TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- A 14-year-old Japanese girl killed herself by mixing laundry detergent with cleanser, releasing fumes that also sickened 90 people in her apartment house, police said Thursday as they grappled with a spate of similar suicides.


None of the sickened neighbors in Konan, southern Japan, were severely ill, although about 10 were hospitalized, authorities said. The deadly hydrogen sulfide gas escaped from the girl's bathroom window and entered neighboring apartments.

The girl's suicide Wednesday night was part of an expanding string of similar deaths that experts say have been encouraged by Internet suicide sites since last summer.

A 31-year-old man outside Tokyo killed himself inside a car early Thursday by mixing detergent and bath salts, police said. A local police spokesman refused to give further details, but Kyodo News agency reported the man put a sign reading "Stay Away" on the car window.

At a business hotel in Shiga prefecture in western Japan, a man in his 30s was found dead Thursday morning by employees who noticed a strange smell coming from his room, according to national broadcaster NHK. Shiga police said officials are investigating the incident as a case of suicide by hydrogen sulfide gas but could not elaborate.

Reports of another similar death emerged Thusday afternoon when the body of a 42-year-old woman in Nagoya, central Japan, was found in a bathtub. According to Kyodo, there was toilet cleaner and bath powder nearby, along with a sign outside that read, "Poisonous gas being emitted. Caution."

Nagoya police said they could not comment on the case, but Kyodo said that fire officials called to the scene did not detect hydrogen sulfide gas.

The method has alarmed officials because of the danger that bystanders can be hurt.

"It's easy and everyone can do it," said Yasuaki Shimizu, director of Lifelink, a Tokyo-based group specializing in halting suicides. "Also there is a lot of information teaching people how to do it on the Internet."

Police say they have not tallied the number of detergent-related suicides, but media reports suggest it has reached about 30 this year, including several cases in which others were also sickened.

The 14-year-old girl, whose name was not released by police, followed the pattern of other deaths.

She mixed detergent with a liquid cleanser in her bathroom, police said. The door was closed, and she had affixed a sign on the outside warning, "Gas being emitted," Kyodo reported.

Most of those sickened nearby complained of sore throats, and about 30 people were evacuated to a nearby gymnasium.

Hydrogen sulfide gas is colorless and characterized by an odor similar to that of rotten eggs. When inhaled, it can lead to suffocation or brain damage.

Japan's government has long battled to contain the country's alarmingly high suicide rate. A total of 32,155 people killed themselves in 2006, giving the country the ninth highest rate in the world, according to the government.

Suicides first passed the 30,000 mark in 1998, near the height of an economic slump that left many bankrupt, jobless and desperate.

The government has earmarked 22.5 billion yen ($220 million) for anti-suicide programs to help those with depression and other mental conditions.

Last year it set a goal of cutting the suicide rate by 20 percent in 10 years through steps such as reducing unemployment, boosting workplace counseling and filtering Web sites that promote suicide.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/04/24/detergent.suicide.ap/index.html

Asian cultures tend to deal a lot more with shame, which if often times worse than guilt, the main emotional currency of the west. Tie that to an economic slump and a you have a lot of suicides.

Suicide is also a traditional part of the culture. It is not stigmatized but embraced as a way of maintaining one's honor in the face of a situation that is considered dishonorable. Among the Samurai, committing suicide allowed one to expunge even a criminal action thus leaving the samurai's family free of responsibility toward those against whom the crime was committed. In 1970 Yukio Mishima committed ritual suicide as a way of proclaiming his devotion to the Code of the Samurai and objections to the intrusions of modern society.

I wonder about the differences between males and females. Would they count them all?

groetjes,
Mirella (Netherlands: 9.2)