Happiest places have the highest suicide rates
April 25th, 2011 - 7:28 pm ICT by Aishwarya BhattNew York, April 25 (THAINDIAN NEWS) For years observers have been baffled as to why places identified as ‘happiest’ to live in often have highest rates of suicide. Previous studies have shown that people who live in places often tagged ‘happiest’ to live are at higher risk of committing suicide.
Some analysts have downplayed the relationship between living in places considered happiest and suicide. They say the trend may be unrelated and might be due to cultural difference among the populations. However a more recent study seems to disapprove those claims.
In the new study which will be published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, analysts from Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, University of Warwick in Britain and Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. studied data of about 2.3 million Americans in the various states in the United States.
After examining the data on state-by-state basis, the researchers identified that the overall happiness of a state increases the risk of suicide among the citizens. The researchers believe that issues like language differences, religion and politics were similar among the study’s subjects eliminating the factor of differences.
In the recent ranking of happiest states in the United States, Utah was named as the happiest state but the data showed that Utah has the ninth highest rate of suicide in the United States.
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Tags: citizens, committing suicide, cultural difference, economic behavior, federal reserve, federal reserve bank, federal reserve bank of san francisco, hamilton college, happiness, journal of economic behavior and organization, language differences, observers, populations, relationship, religion and politics, risk, san francisco university, state basis, suicide rates, university of warwick