Suicide rates in the world: 1950-2004.

The cross-country differences and the trends of suicide rates in 71 countries from 1950 to 2004 are described. The data are from the World Health Organization's Mortality Database. It shows that suicide rates vary greatly across countries, even within the same region or at similar levels of development. Random-effect models were used to examine the between-country and within-country stabilities in suicide rates. The results show that more than 90% of the variance in suicide rates is due to between-country differences, suggesting suicide rates display a strong temporal stability.