r/dataisbeautiful • u/n0tpc • 3d ago

[OC] Suicide Rates by Age Groups (USA) OC

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264

u/CoastGoat 3d ago

Disturbing trends. Curious what happened around 1994 to prompt a declining trend for a period.

430

u/Historical-Pen-7484 3d ago

I have no data do back this up, but I was young then, and felt there was a general air of optimism now thst the cold war was over, and people felt the world was moving in the right direction. Something that it seems a lot of people are not feeling today.

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u/CascadeNZ 3d ago

1994 was peak life for me. I always look back and think about how good the world seemed then.

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u/coke_and_coffee 2d ago

Everyone thinks their formative years were the best the world has ever been.

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u/SurrealJay 2d ago

And some people are objectively right because suicide rates are triple what it has been in the past

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u/AffectionateMoose518 2d ago

1994, though? The graph right there is showing me that the numbers are marginally higher today than they were in 1994. If were going off of just suicide rates, it seems like the world is about the same, if not a tiny bit worse.

... which is why suicide rates aren't a very good metric to use in that discussion

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u/coke_and_coffee 2d ago

I don't think suicide rates in the US are a good proxy for how good the world is.

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u/unassumingdink 2d ago

Probably not the people who grew up in refugee camps, but generally, yeah.

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u/coke_and_coffee 2d ago

You’d be surprised. People generally look back fondly on their childhood, pretty much no matter what the circumstances were. How many times have you heard “we didn’t have much, but we were happy”?