In the Great Depression, many a destitute worker contemplated suicide, so what effect is the current recession likely to be having on death rates?

To find out, David Stuckler at the University of Oxford and colleagues took mortality data on 26 European Union countries from 1970 to 2007. They correlated it with data on employment levels, GDP and social security expenditure.

For every 1 per cent increase in unemployment, both suicides and homicides rose by 0.8 per cent. When employment fell by 3 per cent or more in one go, suicides leapt by 4.4 per cent and homicides by 6.0 per cent.

Although the study covers historic data, the researchers say it applies to the current recession. In the US, unemployment shot up from 6.7 per cent in January to 9.5 per cent in June. And in the UK, unemployment rose by about 1.9 per cent to 7.2 per cent in the year to April.


Suicide stopper

In Spain and some Eastern European countries, the jobless figures are climbing much faster. Spain has 18.7 per cent unemployment, against 13.9 per cent a year ago.

Investing money in government programmes to help people find or keep jobs reduced suicide levels. Every extra $100 spent per unemployed person per year reduced suicide rates by an average of 0.4 per cent, they found.

An unexpected benefit was a 1.4 per cent drop in road traffic deaths for every 1 percent rise in unemployment, probably due to people driving less to save money.

“Traffic volume falls as people shift to walking and public transport. Although car factories are suffering, some could see this as a lifestyle blessing in disguise,” says Stuckler.

Journal reference: The Lancet, DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(09)61124-7 (in press)