It’s a spine-chilling correlation. The economic crisis would have had a destructive effecton jobs but also on human lives. A new Inserm study published in the Weekly Epidemiological Bulletin (BEH) of the Institute for Health Monitoring (InVS) confirms what several experts have feared in recent years: when unemployment rises, the number of suicides also increases. “Between 2000 and 2010 in France, the unemployment rate was significantly and positively associated with the suicide rate,” ensure the French researchers.
A 10% increase in the unemployment rate would increase the suicide rate by an average of 1.5% for the entire population over the age of 15.
Relatively young men seem to be most affected by this phenomenon: the 10% rise in the unemployment rate is accompanied by a 1.8% to 2.6% rise in the suicide rate among men aged 25 to 49. .
The study does not conclude that there is a direct causal link between unemployment and suicide. Unemployment is an additional risk factor for psychologically fragile people.
A fundamental trend
However, this association observed in France is part of a trend observed at European level and even beyond. Last year, researchers from Oxford University and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical medicine in Britain estimated that since 2009 the suicide rate had increased by 6.9% in Europe and North America.
France stands out from these neighbors by the fact that it has one of the highest suicide rates in Europe. More than 10,000 people commit suicide in France each year according to the National Suicide Observatory.
>> To read also: Suicide: an observatory to prevent risks
