Scotland – more Scandinavian ? In suicides maybe

 

I recently went to an event organised by The Church of Scotland and Mackay Hannah where we discussed ‘Ethics and Politics ‘.

One of the most interesting presentations was by Richard Wilkinson, part of the double act with Kate Picket, joint authors of The Spirit Level.

I intuitively, and on their  evidence,  I find  a lot  to agree with in their  book and their arguments . However, as I get older I get pickier and something caught my eye.

So I noticed in his presentation  of the various  aspects of equality  variance in different societies  there was one big  element missing .

What was not listed alongside various inequality factors such as  income variations  ; mental distress; lack of trust; crime rates  etc. was the subject matter of early work by Durkheim – suicide.

Seeing that omission took me back to the Wilkinson/Picket book where they do refer to suicide , but fleetingly,  as an apparent  and unexplained counterfactual to their  equality findings . “ The only social problem we have encountered which tends to be more common in more equal countries [ but not significantly  amongst more equal states in the USA ) is, perhaps surprisingly , suicide.” [ W&P,Edition 1: p175 ].

A distressing conundrum – particularly in Scotland .

 

Suicide Rates per 100000 adult pop.

Most recent data for each country  [Eurostat, OECD, ONS, GRO Scotland  & NHS Data ] varies from 2008 – 2010 and  there is acknowledged data variation that relevant reporting organisations are trying to standardise.

 

European Union /EEA	10.2
Denmark	9.9
Estonia	14.8
Latvia	17.5
Lithuania	28.5
Finland	16.8
Sweden	11.1
Iceland	11.5
Norway	10.8
Japan	23.8
USA	12.0
Scotland	14.5
Northern Ireland [ 1998-8.6 to 2010 figures..]	16.0
Wales	8.6
UK	6.4