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Rural America is facing an existential crisis. As cities continue to grow and prosper, small towns are shrinking. That fundamental divide played itself out in the recent presidential election.
[...] The trend is clear: Rural America is literally fading away. It shouldn't come as a surprise, therefore, that the opioid overdose epidemic has hit rural states, like Kentucky and West Virginia, especially hard. And the latest research from the CDC also shouldn't come as a surprise: Suicides in rural America (labeled as non-core) have increased over 40% in 16 years.
From 1999 to 2015, suicide rates increased everywhere in America. On average, across the U.S., suicides increased from 12.2 per 100,000 to 15.7 per 100,0001, an increase of just under 30%. However, in rural America, the suicide rate surged over 40%2, from just over 15 per 100,000 to roughly 22 per 100,000. Similarly, the suicide rate in micropolitan areas (defined as having a population between 10,000-49,999) went from 14 per 100,000 to 19 per 100,000, an increase of around 35%.
On the flip side, major cities saw much smaller increases in suicide rates, on the order of 10%. The graph depicts a clear pattern: Suicide rates are highest in the most rural parts of the country, and they slowly decrease as urbanization increases. As of 2015, the suicide rate in rural areas (22 per 100,000) is about 40% higher than in the nation as a whole (15.7 per 100,000) and 83% higher than in large cities (12 per 100,000).
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday March 30 2017, @04:10PM (3 children)
It's not large in terms of absolute numbers, but it is significant enough to be used as a canary.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:49PM (2 children)
Estimating those populations by taking a 150M number (half the population lives in cities, give or take a few percent):
5 more points means 7500 extra deaths per year, more than 14 years in Iraq, or twice the Twin Towers. In rural/micropolitan areas alone
3.5 points overall mean about 11000 extra suicides in the US, per year.
I'm all for people being allowed to off themselves, especially if they're about to collect on social security, but that's a lot of bodies to deal with...
It's not terribly out of place compared to other countries, but it's pretty high compared to the happiness propaganda which attracts so many here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate [wikipedia.org]
I'm moving to Jamaica.
(Score: 2) by Hartree on Thursday March 30 2017, @10:51PM (1 child)
"I'm moving to Jamaica"
Well, thanks for the thought, but will that really make the rest of us that much less likely to commit suicide?
:)
(Score: 3, Funny) by bob_super on Thursday March 30 2017, @10:58PM
Depends on whether I was one of the 15, or one of the 99985... You'll have to ask yourself every year: did I jinx you?
MUAHAHAHAH!!!