Photo Credit: Javi.Velazquez,Ā Flickr
When trying to tease out the painful effects of the Great Recession, economists often point to the unemployment rate. The global economic crisis, which first took hold in 2007, left thousands jobless and financially insecure.
But unemployment numbers don't tell the whole story. The recession also may have taken a toll on public health in at least one particularly dramatic way, researchers suggest in a study published online Wednesday. Suicide rates in Europe and North America rose significantly during these years of financial turmoil, the scientists say. And, interestingly, some countries seemed to fare better than others.
Before the recession, the suicide rate in Europe was falling. But it rose by 6.5 percent in 2009 and remained at that level through 2011. And in the United States, where the suicide rate had an upward curve even before the recession, the rate rose more sharply during the recession years. Ultimately, according to the report, which appears in the British Journal of Psychiatry, North America and Europe together experienced roughly 10,000 more suicides during the severe downturn than the trend from earlier years predicted.
While the report shows a correlation between economic turmoil and increased suicide rates, it can't prove a causal relationship, the researchers note. It can't prove that the people who lost their jobs or the homes were the ones who committed suicide. But the differing trends in the suicide rates of different countries deserve a closer look, says Aaron Reeves, a sociologist at the University of Oxford, who led the research.
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