
The Highest Suicide Rate in the World - akakievich
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019/10/10/inuit-highest-suicide-rate/
======
unfocused
When you read article, it is important to note the before state and after
state. There a lot of things that happen in between.

First, you need to understand that this culture existed well before
colonization, and it existed in peace. Secondly, the culture's history and
knowledge, specifically on how to survive in such a harsh environment, was
oral as the Inuit did not pass things on by reading and writing. This is a key
point.

It's not that it's impossible to survive in the Arctic, it's that that are
many requirements, and these requirements were passed on generation after
generation. Much like an Astronaut has to pass tests to ensure that they can
survive the remoteness of space, the same can be said here.

What happened next is that the people, who were the 'books' of knowledge were
taken away, put in schools, killed, imprisoned, etc. The requirements to be
able to live in this environment were no longer being met because the people
responsible for the oral transmission of the requirements and knowledge, were
no longer capable of doing so. The fragile ecosystem of the Inuit and the
remote environment was disrupted.

I don't think people are getting the idea that their oral traditions were
essentially what we would call religion. When religion was put forth a long,
long time ago, it was there to shepard our civilization by providing
requirements so that people can survive, and to enable them to deal with
trauma, for example death, anger, etc.

If you were to rip out religion from a population thousands of years ago, burn
all their books, and make them forget it, they probably would descent into
chaos. This what happened here. The Inuit had their oral traditions, i.e. akin
to religion in this example, removed, and the memory or books, disappeared as
the information was _in_ the people, and not in a book.

The alcoholism, violence, etc. are symptoms of our current society applied
onto theirs. This problem will span generations, and the situation will only
improve once they are able to get back their oral traditions, their religion,
their way of structuring their life in order to survive in the remote
location. Of course, this is more complicated than that because we've now
injected our modern way of life into the mix. I don't know what the outcome
will be, but I do think once they are able to find their oral traditions, and
to remember the stories from the old, they will be better than they are now.

Just my 2 cents.

~~~
ghostbrainalpha
Unlike knowledge stored in books, oral traditions and knowledge can't be "got
back to".

Once the line is broken, it is gone.

~~~
unfocused
Yes and No. I think they can never go back to how it was. But having memories
and remembering the old ways is a start. A point of departure if you will.
From this point of departure, I think this where we will see how they will
evolve their ways.

Much like how after a tragedy, people talk about it to get over it, the next
talk has to be about what happened to them, so that they can move forward.

This, along with remember the ways of the old, can give them roots, and a
feeling of belonging, a feeling of who they were, and a feeling that
traditions can evolve and continue on.

------
ivl
This is tangentially related, but a couple years ago a Canadian woman won the
Global Teachers Prize. [1] The northernmost area of Quebec has quite a lot in
common with Nunavut, being remote and only accessible by air, and struck by
high rates of substance abuse and suicide. However, Quebec is so much more
densely populated in the south that the total population hides this.

I suspect that the reason the Yukon and the Northwest Territories don't see
the huge rate that Nunavut sees is because Whitehorse and Yellowknife (to a
lesser extent) represent such a huge portion of the population, compared to
Iqaluit.

1\. [https://www.globalteacherprize.org/winners/maggie-
macdonnell](https://www.globalteacherprize.org/winners/maggie-macdonnell)

------
CarlosCabrito
Based on my anecdotal evidence, the major factors that seems to affect regions
with high suicide rates are:

\- Isolation/ lack of community connection: Isolated individuals tend to have
less social feedback loops, which impacts their perception of the world around
them.

\- Alcohol and Drug abuse: This can be a byproduct of other areas, as an
attempt to help alleviate the perceived suffering, boredom, etc. In my
opinion, in the long run, alcohol and drug abuse tend to exacerbate the issue.

\- Lack of Vitamin D and Sun: A lack in this areas has been associated with
increased bouts and feeling of depression, which can increase thoughts of
suicide.

~~~
p1esk
This doesn’t explain Lithuania which is not isolated, has no alcohol/drug
problem, and has enough sun.

~~~
dagw
Isolated in this case isn't necessarily talking about geographic isolation,
but the social isolation individuals experience. And when it comes to alcohol,
I don't know enough about the country to say whether it has a "problem" or
not, but it is consistently listed among the top 3 countries by alcohol
consumption.

------
Merrill
It's doubtful that suicide was rare in pre-1950s Nunavut. More likely there is
a problem with non-existent records or with definition of what constitutes
suicide. In particular, when hunts failed and food was scarce, both
infanticide and senilicide were practiced, the latter usually in the form of
assisted suicide. See "Law-Ways of the Primitive Eskimos"
[https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewconten...](https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3012&context=jclc)

------
heymijo
If the commonality is that living in these higher latitude zones causes
increases in suicide, what happens when/if the Earth hits +4C and the
habitable zones become these very same areas? [see map linked below]

There would be obvious confounders, like the despair of knowing that humans
decimated the planet's habitability.

[https://mymodernmet.com/wp/wp-
content/uploads/2018/02/climat...](https://mymodernmet.com/wp/wp-
content/uploads/2018/02/climate-change-map-HD.jpeg)

~~~
merpnderp
If people really believe +4C is likely in 80 years, why aren’t they out
marching and demanding a move to nuclear power? It’s the only option that
doesn’t decimate the poor and drastically increase the price of food, and this
magnitudes more likely to be acted upon. Yet the overlap between people
against nuclear power and terrified of climate change is a massive majority.

~~~
jhayward
> _it 's the only option that doesn’t decimate the poor and drastically
> increase the price of food_

This is an unsupportable assertion. Nuclear power costs far more than the
alternatives (mainly Wind/Solar), none of which impoverish people nor
drastically increase the price of food.

~~~
whatthesmack
The difference is that one (nuclear) can deliver energy consistently, while
the other (wind/solar) simply cannot. Wind/solar just aren’t comparable at
this point. If an energy source isn’t producing energy when you need it, it
isn’t an energy source.

As GP said, nuclear is the only option.

~~~
jhayward
You'll have to help me out. The assertion is that all things that aren't
nuclear _" decimate the poor and drastically increase the price of food"_.

Can you suggest some reading material that would tell me how wind and solar do
those things?

------
Svperstar
Former Alaskan here. I wasn't shocked to find out Greenland and Nunavut which
are also very high north have high suicide rates. The long dark winters can
really mess with you after a while which can lead to substance abuse.

~~~
TearsInTheRain
I think it is too easy to just make it about the environment. If you read the
article it claims the suicide rate wasn't always this high. Something cultural
got lost when they transitioned away from their nomadic lifestyle.

~~~
mieseratte
> I think it is too easy to just make it about the environment.

> Something cultural got lost when they transitioned away from their nomadic
> lifestyle.

As with many problems, the cause is likely mosaic.

I can tell you anecdotally that I would surely devolve into substance abuse
and suicide were I to live in an Alaskan / Canadian environment like that.
Just working from home on a permanent basis was enough to send me out to the
bar on a daily basis. Similarly, when I spent time unemployed my only solace
was substance. I cannot imagine being stuck in such an environment, little
contact and little to do.

Some people just can't handle a certain lifestyle.

One wonders were we to leave the natives to their nomadic lifestyle if we
wouldn't be seeing criticisms for any inevitable fallout and suffering that
lifestyle might bring to members of the population.

------
daliusd
Wondered if Lithuania will be mentioned in the article. Yes, it is. The
difference between Nanuvat and Greenland is that their populations are 10
thousands, we are almost 3 million.

~~~
ChuckNorris89
I guess Lithuania has he same problem as all the Nordics, dark gloomy weather
year round.

I wanted to emigrate to Sweden due to the high quality of life but the dark,
drizzly, windy weather really put me off and some locals I talked to said they
were really depressed by it and were either trying to emigrate or work
remotely from Southern Europe.

In the Blatics it's probably worse as the economic situational is not positive
for some people.

~~~
username90
Suicide is actually correlated with lots of sunshine and high temperatures
even in colder countries like the Nordics.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_effects_on_suicide_ra...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_effects_on_suicide_rates)

People tend to say that they get depressed by the winter, but I believe that
it is similar to how people tended to say that exercise was bad for you not
too long ago. Cold helps against depression in many cases, for example cold
showers. If you asked people if they would be happy trading their warm showers
for cold showers they would say that it would be horrible even though it
likely would improve their overall happiness.

[https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325725.php](https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325725.php)

~~~
heedlessly2
My guess is that during the summer and spring, you see other people outdoor
enjoying activities. If you are a lonely person, this can be discouraging that
everyone around is having fun but you're not.

In the fall and winter, you have an excuse to stay in. Everybody else is doing
the same, so you're not missing out on much.

Plus part of it is academic. For k-12 and university, you see your 'friends'
and 'acquaintances' very often. During the non-academic season, you don't see
people as much which can be isolating.

Plus summer and spring, has the expectation of "you're supposed to be happy".
So if you're not, then this can be devastating. Winter everybody has this
"we're all in this gloomy mood together".

------
kevadk
For comparison, here are a few of the highest rates per 100k in the US:

98.7 - Kusilvak Census Area, AK; 75.1 - Nome Census Area, AK; 64.2 - Sioux
County, ND; 58.9 - Buffalo County, SD; 49.3 - Carbon County, UT

[https://vizhub.healthdata.org/subnational/usa](https://vizhub.healthdata.org/subnational/usa)

Extend the list and you see lots of high latitudes, low incomes, remote rural
settings, and indigenous American populations (e.g. Yupik and Inupiaq in
Alaska, Sioux in the Dakotas).

Alcoholism is often common in these places, although survey data do not show
it affecting the groups in northern Alaska so heavily. Deaths due to chronic
liver disease are not particularly high for them, either. There's a distinct
history in Nunavut, though, so the story might be different.

~~~
BurningFrog
Alcoholism is always rampant when a population is first introduced to the
drug.

Over centuries, evolution acts to produce a population less prone to it, since
people who drink themselves to death don't tend to reproduce.

The population that has had access to alcohol for the longest (8000 years,
according to a guess I saw somewhere) is the Chinese, where the "asian red
flush" gene has developed as a protection against alcoholism.

~~~
andyjohnson0
> Over centuries, evolution acts to produce a population less prone to it

Is this a supposition? Or is there any evidence for this effect being real
and/or it being significant over such evolutionarily short timescales?

~~~
MrBuddyCasino
Evolution can occur quickly! See e.g. the Peppered Moth.

~~~
autoexec
True, but it helps that moths can lay thousands of eggs one or more times a
year. Evolution can be quick but people reproduce very slowly.

------
breitling
In case any one doesn't know: Justin Trudeau's father, Pierre Trudeau, oversaw
these residential schools, the last of which were only dismantled in the 90s
under a different government.

This is a dark chapter in the history of Canada.

~~~
FrankTheBank
Your first statement is highly misleading, the residential schools started in
the 1800s and peaked in 1931. They were also primarily run by religious
organizations. The abuse and human experimentation on the childern also
predate Trudeau by decades. Yes the federal government had a role in
oversight, but to pin the residential schools so completely on Pierre Trudeau
is downright disingenuous and masks the complicity of many many other people.

But it was indeed a dark chapter in the history of Canada. For those of you
curious about the residential schools a basic introduction can be found at:
[https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/residentia...](https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/residential-
schools)

------
ekianjo
Mainly driven by alcoholism, and it is very well known:

> Alcohol and drug use among Inuit increased significantly between 1992 and
> 2004, particularly among young adults. Alcohol users consumed significantly
> more alcohol per drinking episode than other Canadians in both time periods.
> Considerable cannabis use was widespread. In 2004, no significant
> differences in frequencies of heavy drinking episodes were observed by
> gender, with 60% of drug users consuming alcohol on a regular basis.

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4696457/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4696457/)

and the link between alcoholism and suicide is well documented:

> Various classical studies found an excess of suicide among alcoholics
> [73–80]. Beck and Steer [81] and Beck et al. [82] found that alcoholism was
> the strongest single predictor of subsequent completed suicide in a sample
> of attempted suicides.

> In 1997, Harris and Barraclough, in their unusually comprehensive meta-
> analysis analyzed 32 papers related to alcohol dependence and abuse,
> comprising a population of over 45,000 individuals [34]. They found that
> combining the studies gave a suicide risk almost six times that expected but
> with variation of 1–60 times. Specifically, they found that the suicide risk
> for females was very much greater than for males, about 20 times that
> expected compared with four for males. Suicide risk among alcohol-dependent
> individuals has been estimated to be 7% (comparable with 6% for mood
> disorders; [83]). Of 40,000 Norwegian conscripts followed prospectively over
> 40 years, the probability of suicide was 4.76% (relative risk +6.9) among
> those classified as alcohol abusers compared with 0.63 for non-drinkers
> [84]. Similar finding have been made worldwide [85]. Murphy et al. studied
> 50 suicides and found that an alcohol use disorder was the primary diagnosis
> in 23% and a co-occurring diagnosis in 37% [86]. Conwell et al. performed a
> study in New York City and reported that alcohol misuse was present in the
> history of 56% of individuals who completed suicide [43].

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2872355/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2872355/)

EDIT: even in Japan where there is a significant correlation between
alcoholism and suicide rates (in Japanese men at least):
[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5865438_Alcohol_con...](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5865438_Alcohol_consumption_and_suicide_mortality_among_Japanese_men_the_Ohsaki_Study)

~~~
claudeganon
Given the violence, dispossession, and virulent racism indigenous people are
and we’re forced to bear, isn’t the alcoholism another symptom, not the cause?

~~~
endorphone
Similar groups in various other arctic locations throughout the globe have
abuse and suicide rates that are only marginally lower. Further the greatest
number of victims are youth.

Living like it's the 1700s only works if you aren't aware that the rest of the
world exists. Put youth in very remote locations and teach them that
maintaining a lost culture is their most important reason for existing -- but
they're aware of a wide world that will embrace them [^1] yet they're told
that it reviles them -- and it has to be pretty self-defeating. Add horrendous
weather most of the year, harsh conditions, and it just isn't conducive to
happiness.

^1 - Aboriginal racism comes up a lot, and rightly so. But it's often a
stereotype of reserves and remote communities (one very sadly backed by data
-- if you live near a reserve, property crime is likely significantly higher
than if you didn't), and not about a peoples. Canada is a very multicultural
society and any of these people would be just another shade in Canada, but
because of the clutching to the "old ways", much as if I was wearing a Kilt
and trying to raise sheep, it's tough to do and these youth bear the burden of
their ancestors more than most of us do.

~~~
claudeganon
> Living like it's the 1700s only works if you aren't aware that the rest of
> the world exists. Put youth in very remote locations and teach them that
> maintaining a lost culture is their most important reason for existing --
> but they're aware of a wide world that will embrace them [^1] yet they're
> told that it reviles them -- and it has to be pretty self-defeating. Add
> horrendous weather most of the year, harsh conditions, and it just isn't
> conducive to happiness.

You’re describing the outcome of a centuries long, at many points explicitly
genocidal, settler-colonialist project and then hand-washing it away as
“clinging to the old ways.” These circumstances are literally what was
designed for indigenous people in Canada by those who have profited from the
dispossession, not those of their choosing. I don’t think indigenous people
are backward or inherently inferior. I think Canada lies about its own history
and crimes against these people, and then projects its own blame upon them.

~~~
endorphone
"I don’t think indigenous people are backward or inherently inferior."

Weird that you drop this bizarre and incredibly offensive statement.

Countless indigenous people are simply Canadians. They live in cities, have
jobs, and are enjoying lives as normal Canadians. Many Canadians have often
significant aboriginal ancestry in their blood. People just living as a mixed
bag of peoples in one of the richer countries on the Earth, enjoying life.

What I'm talking about are very remote settlements and reservations. This is
situational, not about genetics. The situation of reservations and those far
flung settlements just isn't conducive to happiness. No amount of government
spending will change that.

~~~
whatshisface
> _No amount of government spending will change that._

Why not buy them bus tickets to Ontario? There's some value in preserving
cultures as a matter of record, but that's not worth unnecessary suffering to
make it happen.

~~~
bryanlarsen
> Why not buy them bus tickets to Ontario?

There are no roads to any of the 25 towns in Nunavut.

------
yeahforsureman
Could there be a cultural factor, too? At least historically, in very rough
habitats, you _really_ wanted to be useful for your community, not a burden.
Many native tribes in eg. Alaska and Canada even had a range of customs around
suicide or leaving behind or even killing people of old age and poor
condition, usually based on the wish or consent of the victim.

Maybe such attitudes combined with bleak social and economic prospects and
general feelings of purposelessness and uselessness could well contribute to
the phenomenon?

~~~
mikelyons
Agree. IMHO, I think it's very important here to examine historical and other-
cultural attitudes toward euthanasia and it's analogues. eg., ritual suicide
in feudal Japan. These attitudes seem likely to echo forward from their
common-practice eras ...

------
sdegutis
The more our lives are guided by seeking pleasure and avoiding pain, the more
we will find life to be empty and meaningless, and the more suicides there
will be.Places with the highest "individual freedom" to pursue all sorts of
physical pleasures, especially by changing laws to make unlawful immorality
lawful, are the ones with the highest suicide rates.

------
juskrey
The smaller the sample the more likely you'll see the outlier rate, too high
or too low.

Yours truly, Captain Obvious.

------
131012
For those interested in the issue, this documentary gives voice to some
members of the community.

[https://www.nfb.ca/film/angry_inuk/](https://www.nfb.ca/film/angry_inuk/)

------
gravelc
From my understanding, suicide rates among indigenous Australians are
similarly high, particularly in remote communities. I suspect many of the same
factors are at play.

------
_edo
> Nunavut’s rate is 100 per 100,000, ten times higher than the rest of Canada
> and seven times higher than the US.

Ok, that's bad.

But we can connect that to the US: white males with no college, aged 45-54,
have a suicide rate of 38.8 and a poisoning (overdose) rate of 58.0[0]. Put
those together and that's pushing 100 per 100,000. That's enough to start
asking some cultural questions.

However, "During 1999–2003, the suicide rate among Nunavut males aged 15 to 19
was estimated to exceed 800 per 100,000 population, compared to around 14 for
the general Canadian male population in that age group."[1]

800 per 100,000? This statistic is staggering for a couple of reasons: its
magnitude and the age range.

The graphs in [3] show just how young and male the suicides among the Inuit
are. It's no surprise that it's primarily male, because it almost always is,
but it is surprising to see an 8:1 ratio and that it's affecting the youth so
heavily. For comparison, in the United States the 15-24 age range is near the
bottom of the suicide statistics[4].

These are boys born in the 1980's. As bad as the crimes against the Inuits may
have been in the 1950's it's a strange territory to wander into where an
effect of an atrocity shows up 50 years late in a population that wasn't alive
yet. From wikipedia[2]: "...to about 170 in 2002. Some of the reasons given
include adverse childhood experiences involving emotional neglect and abuse,
family violence and substance abuse, as well as social inequalities brought on
by government intervention." (referencing [3]) I can see the argument the
author is making here but I don't have the time to address it.

The article is giving the "white guilt" narrative and for whatever reason is
dancing around the massive gender disparity in suicide rates. When I see
articles like this I wonder how much the author cares about suicide and how
much they see it as a platform to write about anti-colonialism.

[0] - Table 1
[https://www.pnas.org/content/112/49/15078](https://www.pnas.org/content/112/49/15078)
[1] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_Canada](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_Canada)
[2] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_Canada#Among_the_In...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_Canada#Among_the_Inuit)
[3] -
[https://www.iwgia.org/images/publications//IA_4_07.pdf#page=...](https://www.iwgia.org/images/publications//IA_4_07.pdf#page=30)
[4] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Crude_US_suicide_rate_by_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Crude_US_suicide_rate_by_age_1981-2016.png)

------
l0l0l0l
interesting.

------
japhyr
The history of alcoholism and suicide in Alaska goes back to the time of first
contact with outsiders. When westerners first contacted Alaska Native tribes,
those "explorers" tended to be people who were after valuable furs, and
missionaries. These people were usually a mix of Russians from the west and
Americans from the south.

The outsiders brought with them diseases like tuberculosis and influenza, and
these diseases were devastating. In many villages, up to 70% of the population
died in the span of a few generations. It's hard to imagine how hard this
would be to live through. I live in a town of 10,000 and I imagine waking up
at some point to only have 3,000 people around, not because people move but
because all of those people we knew were dead.

That wasn't all, though. Almost all of the missionaries blamed the survivors
for what happened. They said their people died because they worshipped the
devil. They took the surviving children away, telling parents they weren't fit
to raise their own children. They banned the use of Native languages, and all
aspects of Native culture such as dancing, regalia, ceremonies, and more. All
of this has led to despair and a disconnect with a rich culture that existed
for ~10,000 years before this.

Life for Native people before contact was not perfect. But this is the root of
alcoholism and suicide in Alaska, and in many areas with indigenous
populations around the world. If you're interested in learning more about this
history, I recommend Yuuyaraq: The Way of the Human Being by Harold Napoleon
[0], and Chills and Fever: Health and Disease in the Early History of Alaska
by Robert Fortuine [1].

[0] [https://www.amazon.com/Yuuyaraq-Human-Being-Harold-
Napoleon/...](https://www.amazon.com/Yuuyaraq-Human-Being-Harold-
Napoleon/dp/187796221X/)

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Chills-Fever-Health-Disease-
History/d...](https://www.amazon.com/Chills-Fever-Health-Disease-
History/dp/0912006587)

~~~
TimTheTinker
> Almost all of the missionaries blamed the survivors for what happened. They
> said their people died because they worshipped the devil. They took the
> surviving children away, telling parents they weren't fit to raise their own
> children. They banned the use of Native languages, and all aspects of Native
> culture such as dancing, regalia, ceremonies, and more. All of this has led
> to despair and a disconnect with a rich culture that existed for ~10,000
> years before this.

Do you have any citations for this? I have read a lot of missionary stories,
and have friends and family who have been or are missionaries themselves, and
have never heard of anything so heinous. That's exactly the _opposite_ of what
missionaries are supposed to be; it sounds more like a particularly brutal
form of western imperialism and exploitation than anything else.

~~~
fwip
It's not hard to find these accounts.

Here's the top link I found when googling 'first nations canada banned
language': [https://www.facinghistory.org/stolen-lives-indigenous-
people...](https://www.facinghistory.org/stolen-lives-indigenous-peoples-
canada-and-indian-residential-schools/chapter-4/language-loss)

Here's another source from The Guardian (not my favorite paper, but generally
publishes true things): [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/02/canada-
indigen...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/02/canada-indigenous-
schools-cultural-genocide-report) \- "Children inducted into residential
schools were forbidden from speaking their native languages and subjected to
routine physical abuse, inadequate nutrition and neglect. Sexual abuse was
common, according to the survivors who testified at commission hearings
throughout the country."

Edit: The history of missionaries is inextricably linked with the history of
Western imperialism and exploitation. These accounts are by no means limited
to the Canada or even the Americas - there are many accounts of the brutal
treatment of indigenous people in Africa, Australia and Oceania committed by
missionaries.

------
vollmond
Anecdotally, I've heard Scandinavia has a similarly high rate, for the same
reason.

~~~
CogitoCogito
> Anecdotally, I've heard Scandinavia has a similarly high rate, for the same
> reason.

Why are you posting your anecdotes like this? You have access to the internet
after all:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_r...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate#List_by_the_World_Health_Organization_\(2016\))

For example, on that list the US rates _worse_ than Sweden, Denmark, Norway,
Iceland and are about the same as Finland.

~~~
ben509
The US is a large, heterogeneous nation and comparisons with small homogenous
nations are misleading.

~~~
dagw
In what particular way is it misleading in this case, and in which direction?

~~~
pkaye
An interesting thing is in the US, native-americans and white population has
2-3x the suicide rate as blacks, hispanics and asians.
[https://www.sprc.org/racial-ethnic-disparities](https://www.sprc.org/racial-
ethnic-disparities)

------
yostrovs
"Nunavut’s [suicide] rate is 100 per 100,000, ten times higher than the rest
of Canada and seven times higher than the US. When I visited Nunavut’s
capital, Iqaluit, in July, virtually every Inuit I met had lost at least one
relative to suicide, and some recounted as many as five or six family
suicides, plus those of friends, coworkers, and other acquaintances."

So one in 1,000 kills himself and nearly everyone has a relative that did it?
Pretty big families over there.

~~~
ninkendo
I think that’s 100 per 100,000 _per year_.

~~~
bloak
That's right. I hate it when people mess up the units like that. When I read
that "X's GDP is $Y billion" with no mention of "year" or "annual" I am almost
as annoyed as when journalists can't tell the difference between energy and
power.

~~~
mrosett
You're technically right, but I don't think I've ever seen GDP quoted as
something other than per year, so there's no real ambiguity. The bigger
problem is comparing GDP (a flow) to quantities that are stocks (total debt,
market cap of X, etc.)

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filleokus
A slightly related problem is GDP vs GDP per capita, which during periods of
high immigration or of otherwise rapid population growth can paint quite
different pictures.

