Suicide Rate Rising For Working-Age Adults

(The image above is a sculpture in Barcelona's Poblenou Cemetery. It was found at the website Kuriositas.)

There is a disturbing new report from the Center for Disease Control (CDC). The CDC reports that the number of deaths from suicides has for the first time eclipsed the number of people killed in auto accidents. This could have been expected, since the population is growing while cars become safer. But what was not expected, and is much more troubling, is that the rate of suicides (the number of suicides per 100,000 people) is also growing -- and that can't be accounted for by any increase in population.

Traditionally, suicide has been viewed as a problem mainly of the young and the elderly -- but the CDC found suicide is growing among those between 35 and 64 (increasing 28.4%), meaning much more effort needs to be taken to prevent suicides in that age group. That rate rises even more sharply for those from 45 to 64 -- and for both women and men, Whites, and Native Americans. It has also grown significantly among all areas of the country.

Here are the figures for the age 35 to 64 group. The first figure given is the 2010 suicide rate (per 100,000), while the number in parentheses is the 1999 rate -- followed by the percentage difference between the two figures:

General public...............17.6 (13.7).....up 28.4%

Men...............27.3 (21.5).....up 27.3%
Women...............8.1 (6.2).....up 31.5%

35 to 39...............15.3 (14.4).....up 6.4%
40 to 44...............16.7 (14.3).....up 16.5%
45 to 49...............19.3 (14.3).....up 34.3%
50 to 54...............19.9 (13.4).....up 48.4%
55 to 59...............19.1 (12.8).....up 49.1%
60 to 64...............15.6 (11.4).....up 37.0%

Whites...............22.3 (15.9).....up 40.4%
Blacks...............6.8 (6.4).....up 5.8%
Hispanics...............7.4 (7.1).....up 3.5%
Asians/Pacific Islanders...............7.8 (7.1).....up 10.6%
Native Americans...............18.5 (11.2).....up 65.2%

Northeast...............13.9 (10.5).....up 32.7%
Midwest...............17.3 (12.7).....up 35.6%
South...............18.4 (14.8).....up 24.4%
West...............19.5 (15.8).....up 23.6%

The study doesn't go into the causes of the sharp rise in the suicide rate. However, I can't help but feel it may have at least something to do with the economy and huge jobless rate. People who have always been able to work and take care of their families can no longer do so. That is just my guess, and may not be true -- but the fact that groups who have been used to having a harsher economic problem (like Blacks and Hispanics) tends to lend a bit of credence to my theory, since their rise in the suicide rate was very small.

What do you think? Why is the suicide rate rising among the 35 to 64 age group (who traditionally have had a much smaller rate than that among the young and the elderly)?