IN THE Great Depression, many a destitute worker considered suicide. So what effect might the current recession be having on death rates?
To get an idea, David Stuckler at the University of Oxford and colleagues took mortality data on 26 European Union countries from 1970 to 2007, along with data on employment, GDP and social security expenditure. For every 1 per cent rise in unemployment, both suicides and homicides rose by 0.8 per cent. When employment fell by 3 per cent or more in one go, suicides leapt by 4.4 per cent and homicides by 6.0 per cent. Investing…
