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In the U.S., Nevada has the highest suicide rate (22.5) of any state, and the West Coast the highest of any region. Nevada's high rate presumably results from the state's low population outside of Reno and Las Vegas, where gambling, drinking and divorce create a high-crisis quotient. The West Coast's rate is probably high because of the large number of people who move there after retirement and bring with them the increased suicide rale that goes with advancing years. Another factor is that the West Coast attracts the ambitious and restless who are inclined to react bitterly to failure. Some of the lowest suicide rates in the U.S. are in Mississippi and South Carolina, relatively static societies where even the poorest people tend to have roots and fixed status.
Age, marital situation and occupation are all significant factors in proneness to suicide. One is most likely to try it and fail before 35 and to succeed after 50. In most of the U.S. and the Western world, more women than men make suicide attempts, but nearly four times as many men actually kill themselves. Single people are far more likely to kill themselves than the married—but who can say if they do it because they are unmarried or are unmarried because they are depressive people who are inclined to kill themselves? Divorced males seem to have a hard time finding a reason for living: 69.4 per 100,000 of them kill themselves in the U.S., as opposed to only 18.4 of divorced women.
Artists, professional men and top executives commit suicide more than other people; two in every 100 doctors kill themselves, perhaps because of the ready availability of the means (a factor that also ups the suicide rate of policemen and soldiers). More surprising is the high rate of suicide among psychiatrists.
The fewest suicides in America and Northern Europe take place in December, the most in April and May. No one knows why April is the crudest month—perhaps because someone who is depressed to start with feels lonelier and more out of things than ever, when the rest of the world is elated by spring, perhaps because of frustrated sexual stirrings or nostalgia for happier times.
How to Destroy the World
The why of suicide is the most elusive question of all. Money problems? Poverty as such does not drive people to suicide; it is the wealthy whose fortunes collapse, like Swedish Match King Ivar Kreuger, rather than those with nothing to lose, who are more inclined to it. Poor health? Physical suffering rarely triggers self-destruction; the incidence among cancer patients is remarkably low. Love? Few really kill themselves for unrequited passion.
Why one man watches the ground rush up to meet him or tastes the steel of a pistol—while another gives a shrug, takes a drink, or develops a manageable neurosis—is an enigma that has only recently received serious examination.