Analysis of Suicide

Rate Data

By Emily Thomas and Stephanie Ford

Motivation and Background
● Suicide - 10th leading cause of death worldwide [4].

○ To reduce suicide rates contributing factors must be

understood.

● GDP

● Unemployment

● Human rights
Research Questions
● Is there a correlation between suicide rate and:

○ GDP per capita?

○ Human rights score?

○ Unemployment rate?

● Can we predict a country’s suicide rate given GDP, human rights score, and
unemployment rate?

● How have suicide rates changed with time?

 Methodology
Correlation analysis

Machine Learning
Cleaned datasets to Merged on matching
Model
the same form year and country

Geospatial map
 Key Results -
Suicide Rate
Over Time

Overall rate of suicide has

decreased
 Key Results - Suicide Rate Correlations

● Suicide rate versus:

○ GDP per capita: R2 ~ 0
○ Human Rights Score: R2 = 0.017
○ Year: R2 = 0.011
○ Unemployment: R2 = 0.007

● Linear correlations stronger in some

individual countries

Globally: No Correlation
Suicide Rate Correlations - By country
● Sample country: France
● Suicide rate vs.
○ GDP per capita: R2 = 0.83
○ Human Rights Score: R2 = 0.54
○ Year: R2 = 0.96
○ Unemployment: R2 = 0.08
Key Results - Machine Learning Model

Human Rights Score

?
GDP per Capita Suicide Rate
Unemployment Rate
Future Work
● More variables to machine learning models to
improve accuracy
● Map strong positive change and strong
negative change in suicide rate over time
Sources

[1]https://www.apa.org/international/pi/2018/12/mental-health-rights

[2]http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/137/3/e20153223

[3]https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2014/06/09/how-unemployment-and-depression-fit-together/#365
d3e147b70

[4]https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/03/trends-suicide