Suicide rates on the rise

Recent data has discovered that more and more people are "topping themselves," and "experts" have linked this to the global economics crisis.  The male suicide rate has risen 3.3% in over 54 countries , where there is also a high unemployment rate.  Researches have correlated that from 2009, where there was a 39% rise in unemployment , male suicide rates also begun to increase.

  It is believed that the increasing the number of people committing suicide is due to "emotional stress" of a recession. The high unemployment rates meant that many people experienced a large loss in income, meaning they may have struggled  to support themselves to buy the basic necessities such as food and shelter. In addition , particularly in the UK in recent times, the government has also been cutting back on welfare benefits to try and balance their fiscal deficit. With even tighter rules making it harder for people to even receive job seekers allowance.

However, surprisingly the data did not really show any change to female suicide rates. There is no clear explanation for this , but some with a more traditional view may suggest that this was due to the male in the family being the one that had to support a family financially and thus held large amounts of responsibility causing a lot of stress.

Suicide does not come cheap either. In Japan, suicides cost the Japanese economy £21bn in 2010. However It must be pointed out that these figures are in reference to the loss in income (which affects GDP) and health costs. Japan has one of the highest suicide rates, with 32,000 people killing themselves in 2009, at the start of the global economics crisis. Therefore , the government have ever since been running promotional campaigns with TV adverts advising those "emotionally stressed" to seek help.

All in all, correlation does not mean causation and the link between the two variables cannot be proved.