Suicide

From the statistical mills of the World Health Organization last week came official confirmation of the near-obvious: Berlin, East & West, now leads the world in cases of suicidal despair. In 1950 (the latest year for which WHO has figures in most instances), 43 out of every 100,000 men in Greater Berlin killed themselves, 33 out of every 100,000 women.

In West Germany, by contrast, the rates were only 27 per 100,000 for men and 12 for women. Some other countries with high rates: Austria, 34 men and 15 women; Denmark, 32 and 15; Switzerland, 35 and 13. Japan had a rate of only 24 per 100,000 for men and 15 for women while the U.S. rates (for 1949) were 33 and 10. Countries with a strong Roman Catholic tradition have some of the lowest rates, e.g., 8 and 3 in Spain, 4 and 1 in Ireland. Other findings: P:Most of the 32 governments reporting found that suicides among men were two to five times as common as among women. P:In Denmark, with its low death rate from disease, suicides are numerous enough to account for 23% of all deaths among men aged 25 to 34. P:Out of 999 causes of death, WHO recognizes 160 different ways of committing suicide.

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