Major Study: Suicide Rates in the U.S. Are Soaring

This is upsetting. Not entirely surprising, though, given the way so much of the US public is getting the shaft from the .1%.

Major Study: Suicide Rates in the U.S. Are Soaring

The slope of that graph is not exactly "soaring."

10.5 to 13 is a pretty big increase, in context. Whether that counts as "soaring" is debatable, and for myself, I like to use "soaring" for good things, not death rates. But that's all fluff. The increase isn't.

richard09 wrote:

10.5 to 13 is a pretty big increase

"Deaths per 100,000" -- I haven't worked out the percentage, but to use the word "soaring" seems hyperbolic.

That's a twenty-four percent increase in fifteen years. "Soaring" might be appropriate given the subject.

If suicides had gone from one a year to two a year that would be a 100% increase.  Percentage increases, as we've discussed here before, are deceptive without baseline information to put the numbers in context.

A 24% increase means the rate increased from 0.0105% to 0.0130%.

41,457 suicides (in a population of 318.9m) versus 33,485.  An increase of 7,972.