Abstract
This paper has a double purpose: to see how well Durkheim’s [1897, Le Suicide (Paris: 1e edition)] findings apply a century later, and to see if the beneficial effects of social capital on suicide prevention are parallel to those already found for subjective well-being (Helliwell 2003, Economic Modelling 20(2), pp. 331–360). The results show that more social capital and higher levels of trust are associated with lower national suicide rates, just as they are associated with higher levels of subjective well-being. Furthermore, there is a strong negative correlation between national average suicide rates and measures of life satisfaction. Thus social capital does appear to improve well-being, whether measured by higher average values of life satisfaction or by lower average suicide rates. There is a slight asymmetry, since the very high Scandinavian measures of subjective well-being are not matched by equally low suicide rates. To take the Swedish case as an example, this asymmetry is explained by Sweden having particularly high values of variables that have more weight in explaining life satisfaction than suicide (especially quality of government), and less beneficial values of variables that have more influence in explaining suicide rates (Swedes have low belief in God and high divorce rates), because with the latest data and models the Swedish data fit the well-being and suicide equations with only tiny errors. If the international suicide data pose a puzzle, it is more because suicide rates, and their estimated equations, differ greatly by gender, while life satisfaction and its explanations are similar for men and women.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aihara H. and Iki M. (2002). Effects of socio-economic factors on suicide from1980 through 1999 in osaka prefecture, Japan. Journal of Epidemiology 12: 439–449
Alesina, A., A. Devleeshauwer, W. Easterly, S. Kurlat and R. Wacziarg: 2002, Fractionalization. NBER Working Paper 9411 (Cambridge: National Bureau of Economic Research)
Arango V., Underwood M.D. and Mann J.J. (2002). Serotonin brain circuits involved in major depression and suicide. Progress in Brain Research 136: 443–453
Blair-West G.W., Cantor C.H., Mellsop G.W. and Eyeson-Annan M.L. (1999). Lifetime suicide risk in major depression: Sex and age determinants. Journal of Affective Disorders 55(2–3): 171–178
Brockington L. (2001). Suicide in women. International Clinical Psychopharmacology 16(Suppl 2): S7–S19
Burvill P.W. (1998). Migrant suicide rates in Australia and in Country of Birth. Psychological Medicine 28(1): 201–208
Cavanagh J.T., Carson A.J., Sharpe M. and Lawrie S.M. (2003). Psychological autopsy studies of suicide: A systematic review. Psychological-Medicine 33(3): 395–405
Chen Y.W. and Dilsaver S.C. (1996). Lifetime rates of suicide attempts among subjects with bi-polar and unipolar disorders relative to subjects with other axis 1 disorders. Biological Psychiatry 39(10): 896–899
Collins I.P. and Paykel E.S. (2000). Suicide amongst Cambridge University Students, 1970–1996. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 35(3): 128–132
Coppen A. and Farmer R. (1998). Suicide mortality in patients on lithium therapy. Journal of Affective Disorders 50(2–3): 261–267
Craig I.W (1994). Psychiatric genetics: Misbehaving monoamine oxidase gene. Current Biology 4(2): 175–177
Cutler, D.M., E. Glaeser and K. Norberg: 2000, Explaining the Rise in Youth Suicide. NBER Working Paper 7713. (Cambridge: National Bureau of Economic Research)
Dalgleish T., Spinks H., Yiend J. and Kuyken W. (2001). Autobiographical memory style in Seasonal Affective Disorder and its relationship to future symptom remission. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 109: 335–340
Davis G.E. and Lowell W.E. (2002). Evidence that latitude is directly related to variations in suicide rates. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 47(6): 572–574
Durkheim, E.: 1897, Le Suicide (Paris: 1e edition )
Durkheim E. (1952). Suicide: A Study in Sociology. Translated by John A. Spaulding and George Simpson. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London
Ellison C.G., Burr J.A. and McCall P.L. (1997). Religious homogeneity and metropolitan suicide rates. Social Forces 76(1): 273–299
Ferrada-Noli M. (1997). Health and socio-economic indicators in psychiatric catchment areas with divergent suicide rates. Psychological Reports 81(2): 611–619
Gould, M.S.: 2001, ‚Suicide and the media’, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 932(April), pp. 200–221
Groholt B., Ekeberg O., Wichstrom L. and Haldorsen T. (1997). Youth suicide in Norway,␣1990–1992: A comparison between children and adolescents completing suicide and␣age- and gender-matched controls. Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior 27(3): 250–263
Gunnell D., Lopatatzidis A., Dorling D., Wehner H., Southall H. and Frankel S. (1999). Suicide and unemployment in young people: Analysis of trends in England and Wales, 1921–1995. The British Journal of Psychiatry, The Journal of Mental Science 175: 263–270
Hakko H., Rasanen P. and Tiihonen J. (1998). Seasonal variation in suicide occurrence in Finland. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 98(2)
Halman L. (2001). The European Values Study: A Third Wave. Work and Organization Research Centre, Tilburg
Helliwell J.F. (2003). How’s life? Combining individual and national variables to explain subjective well-being. Economic Modelling 20(2): 331–360
Hilton S.C., Fellingham G.W. and Lyon J.L. (2002). Suicide rates and religious commitment in young adult males in Utah. American Journal of Epidemiology 155(5): 413–419
Hintikka J., Saarinen P.L. and Viinamaki H. (1999). Suicide mortality in Finland during an economic cycle, 1985–1995. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health 27(2): 85–88
Hjern A. (2002). Suicide in first- and second-generation immigrants in Sweden: A comparative study. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology (Abstract Volume) 37: 423–429
Hjern A., Lindblad F. and Vinnerljung B. (2002). Suicide, psychiatric illness and social maladjustment in intercountry adoptees in Sweden: A cohort analysis. The Lancet 360: 443–448
Holley H.L., Fick G. and Love E.J. (1998). Suicide following an inpatient hospitalization for a suicide attempt: A Canadian follow-up study. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 33(11): 543–551
Inglehart, R. et al.: 2000, World Values Surveys and European Values Surveys, 1981–1984, 1990–1993, and 1995–1997 (Computer File) ICPSR Version. (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research)
Jessen G. and Jensen B.F. (1999). Postponed suicide death? Suicides around birthdays and major public holidays. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior 29(3): 272–283
Jin R.L., Shah C.P. and Svoboda T.J. (1995). The impact of unemployment on health: A review of the evidence. Canadian Medical Association Journal 153(5): 529–540
Johansson S.E. and Sundquist J. (1997). Unemployment is an important risk factor for suicide in contemporary Sweden: An 11-year follow-up study of a cross-sectional sample of 37,789 people. Public Health 111(1): 41–45
Johansson L.M., Sundquist J., Johansson S.E., Bergman B., Qvist J. and Traskman-Bendz L. (1997). Suicide among foreign-born minorities and native Swedes: An epidemiological follow-up study of a defined population. Social Science and Medicine 44(2): 181–187
Jougla E., Pequignot F., Chappert J., Rossolin J., Le Toullec A. and Pavillon G. (2002). La qualité des données de mortalité sur le suicide. Revue d’Epidemiologie et de Santé Publique 50(1): 49–62
Kahneman D. (1999). Objective happiness. In: Kahneman, D., Diener, E. and Schwarz, N. (eds) Well: Being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology, pp 3–25. Russell Sage, New York
Kaufmann, D., A. Kraay and M. Mastruzzi: 2003, Governance Matters III: Updated Indicators for 1996–2002. Draft Research Paper, June 2003. (Washington: World Bank)
Kliewer E. (1991). Immigrant suicide in Australia, Canada, England and Wales and the United States. Journal of the Australian Population Association 8(2): 111–128
Koivumaa-Honkanen H., Hokanen R., Viinamäki H.H., Heikkilä K., Kaprio J. and Koskenvuo M. (2001). Life satisfaction and suicide: A 20-year follow-up study. American Journal of Psychiatry 158: 433–439
Kposowa A.J. (2000). Marital status and suicide in the national longitudinal mortality study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 54(4): 254–261
Kposowa A.J. (2001). Unemployment and suicide: A cohort analysis of social factors predicting suicide in the US National Longitudinal Mortality Study. Psychological Medicine 31(1): 127–138
Krug E.G., Kresnow M., Peddicord J.P., Dahlberg L.L., Powell K.E., Crosby A.E. and Annest J.L. (1998). Suicide after natural disasters. The New England Journal of Medicine 338(6): 373–378
Laurent A., Foussard N., David M., Boucharlat J. and Bost M. (1998). A 5-year follow-up study of suicide attempts among French adolescents. The Journal of Adolescent Health 22(5): 424–430
Lewis G. and Sloggett A. (1998). Suicide, deprivation and unemployment: A record-linkage study. British Medical Journal (Clinical Research ed) 317(7168): 1283–1286
Ludwig J. and Cook P.J. (2000). Homicide and suicide rates associated with implementation of the brady handgun violence prevention act. Journal of the American Medical Association 284(5): 585–591
Luoma J.B. and Pearson J.L. (2002). Suicide and marital status in the United States, 1991–1996: Is widowhood a risk factor?. American Journal of Public Health 92(9): 1518–1522
Mann J.J. and Brent Arango D.A. (2001). The neurobiology and genetics of suicide and attempted suicide: A focus on the serotonergic system. Neuropsychopharmacology 24(5): 467–477
Marion S.A., Agbayewa M.O. and Wiggins S. (1999). The effect of season and weather on suicide rates in the elderly in British Columbia. Canadian Journal of Public Health 90(6): 418–422
Marttunen M.J., Henriksson M.M., Aro H.M., Heikkinen M.E., Isomesta E.T. and Lonnqvist J.K. (1995). Suicide among female adolescents: Characteristics and comparison with males in the age group 13 to 22 years. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 34(10): 1297–1307
Morrell S., Taylor R., Slaytor E. and Ford P. (1999). Urban and rural suicide differentials in migrants and the Australian-Born, New South Wales, Australia 1985–1994. Social Science and Medicine 49(1): 81–91
Murray C.J.L. and Lopez A.D. (1996). Global Health Statistics: A Compendium of Incidence, Prevalence and Mortality Estimates for Over 200 Countries. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA
Neeleman J. (1998). Regional suicide rates in the Netherlands: Does religion still play a role?. International Journal of Epidemiology 27(3): 466–472
Neeleman J., Halpern D., Leon D. and Lewis G. (1997). Tolerance of suicide, religion and suicide rates: An ecological and individual study in 19 western countries. Psychological Medicine 27(5): 1165–1171
Neeleman J. and Lewis G. (1999). Suicide, religion and socio-economic conditions: An ecological study in 26 countries, 1990. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 53(4): 204–210
Nemtsov, A.V.: 2001, Alkogol’naya smertnost’v Rossii, 1980–90-e gody [Alcohol-related Mortality in Russia, the 1980s and 1990s] Moscow
Nilsson A. (1999). Lithium therapy and suicide risk. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 60(Suppl 2): 85–88
Nishi M. (2000). The relationship between suicides and holidays. Journal of Epidemiology/ Japan Epidemiological Association 10(5): 317–320
Ohberg A., Vuori E., Klaukka T. and Lonnqvist J. (1997). Antidepressants and suicide mortality. Journal of Affective Disorders 50(2–3): 225–233
Ostamo A. and Lönnqvist J. (2001a). Attempted suicide rates and trends during a period of severe economic recession in Helsinki, 1989–1997. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 36(7): 354–360
Ostamo A. and Lönnqvist J. (2001b). Excess mortality of suicide attempters. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 36(1): 29–35
Parker G., Gao F. and Machin D. (2001). Seasonality of suicide in Singapore: Data from the equator. Psychol Med 31(7): 549–553
Petridou E., Papadopoulos F.C., Frangakis C.E., Skalkidou A. and Trichopoulos D. (2002). A role of sunshine in the triggering of suicide. Epidemiology 13(1): 106–109
Potter L.B. (2001). The influence of geographic mobility on nearly lethal suicide attempts. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior 32(1 Suppl): 42–48
Preti A. and Miotto P. (1999). Suicide and unemployment in Italy, 1982–1994. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 53(11): 694–701
Putnam R.D. (2000). Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. Simon & Schuster, New York
Putnam, R.D.: 2001, ‚Social capital: Measurement and consequences’, in J.F. Helliwell (ed.) The Contribution of Human and Social Capital to Sustained Economic Growth and Well-Being (Ottawa: HDRC and OECD) (Proceedings of an OECD/HRDC conference, Quebec, March 19–21, 2000)
Qin P., Agerbo E., Westergard-Nielson N., Eriksson T. and Mortensen P.B. (2000). Gender differences for risk factors for suicide in Denmark. The British Journal of Psychiatry: The Journal of Mental Science 177: 546–550
Qin P., Agerbo E. and Mortensen P.B. (2003). Suicide risk in relation to socioeconomic, demographic, psychiatric and familial factors: A national register baseline study of all suicides in Denmark 1981–1997. The British Journal of Psychiatry: The Journal of Mental Science 177: 546–550
Ramstedt, M.: 2001, ‚Alcohol and suicide in 14 European countries’, Addiction 96(Supplement 1), pp. S59–S75
Rice T.W. (1997). Civic culture and democracy from Europe to America. Journal of Politics 59(4): 1143–1172
Rihmer Z., Rutz W., Pihlgren H. and Pestality P. (1998). Decreasing tendency of seasonality in suicide may indicate lowering rate of depressive suicides in the population. Psychiatry Research 81(2): 233–240
Rockett J.R. and Thomas B.M. (1999). Reliability and sensitivity of suicide certification in higher-income countries. Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior 29(2): 141–149
Rossau C.D. and Mortensen P.B. (1997). Risk factors in patients with Schizophrenia: Nested case-control study. The British Journal of Psychiatry, The Journal of Mental Science 171(Oct): 355–359
Roy A., Nielson D., Rylander G., Sarchiapone M. and Segal M. (1999). Genetics of suicide in depression. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 60(Suppl 2): 12–17
Rutz W. (2001). Preventing suicide and premature death by education and treatment. Journal of Affective Disorders 62(1–2): 123–129
Schmidtke A. and Hafner H. (1988). The werther effect after television films: New evidence from an old hypothesis. Psychological Medicine 18: 665–676
Schmidtke A. (1996). Attempted suicide in Europe: Rates, trends and socio-demographic characteristics of suicide attempters during the period 1989–1992. Results of the WHO/EURO Multicentre Study on Parasuicide Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 95(5): 327–338
Silverman M.M. (1993). Campus student suicide rates: Fact or artifact?. Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior 23(4): 329–342
Silverman M.M., Meyer P.M., Sloane F., Raffel M. and Pratt D.M. (1997). The big ten student suicide study: A 10-year study of suicides on Mid-Western University Campuses. Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior 23(4): 329–342
Singh G.K. and Siahpush M. (2001). All-cause and cause-specific mortality of immigrants and native born in the United States. American Journal of Public Health 91(3): 392–399
Singh G.K. and Siahpush M. (2002). Increasing rural-urban gradients in US suicide mortality. American Journal of Public Health 92(7): 1161–1167
Souery D., Oswald P., Linkowski P. and Mendlewicz J. (2003). Molecular genetics in the analysis of suicide. Annals of Medicine 35(3): 191–196
Soroka, S.N., J.F. Helliwell and R. Johnston: 2006, ‚Modelling interpersonal trust’, in R. Johnston and F. Kay (eds.), Diversity, Social Capital and the Welfare State (Vancouver: UBC Press, forthcoming)
Stack S. (2000). Suicide: A 15-year review of the sociological literature. Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior 30(2): 145–176
Savitz D.A. (2000). Occupational sunlight exposure in relation to suicide among electrical workers. American Journal of Industrial Medicine 38(2): 149–154
Varnik A., Wasserman D., Dankowicz M. and Eklund G. (1998). Marked decrease in suicide in the former USSR during perestroika. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica Supplementum 1998 394: 13–19
Wasserman D. and Varnik A. (1998). Reliability of statistics on violent death and suicide in the former USSR, 1970–1990. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica Supplementum 1998 394: 34–41
Wasserman D. and Värnik A. (2001). Perestroika in the Former USSR: History’sMost Effective Suicide Preventive Programme for Men. In: Wasserman, D. (eds) Suicide: An Unnecessary Death, pp 253–258. Martin Dunitz, London
Wickstrom L. and Rossow I. (2002). Explaining the gender difference in self-reported suicide attempts: A nationally representative study of norwegian adolescents. Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior 32(2): 101–116
Williams M. (2001). Suicide and Attempted Suicide. Penguin, London
Yip P.S. (1998). Age, sex, marital status and suicide: An empirical study of east and west. Psychological Reports 82(1): 311–322
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Helliwell, J.F. Well-Being and Social Capital: Does Suicide Pose a Puzzle?. Soc Indic Res 81, 455–496 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-006-0022-y
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-006-0022-y