Suicide Rates in Italy

33 comments
  1. Magna Grecia: last man standing against whatever distopian evolution of humankind lol

    ​

    /s

  2. They say people who are killed usually knew the perpetrator. Looking at these numbers, it seems that in you are about 5x as likely to be killed by yourself than by anyone else.

  3. From someone who lives in the south this is something I would have bet on.

    South is not that bad to live in. Also good weather and season are a big part if wellness as a whole so that’s understandable.

    Another important aspect imo of
    is probably due to the harder economic conditions that bring difficulties to achieve a good standard of life making ppl less inclined to commit suicide due to be mentally harder than ppl born is places where the life is easier.

    Morover, in the south, due to the lack of control (wanted or not) despite being the poorer part of Italy on average, people can find a variety of shady works that allows them to life with decency (sort of social safety net but not legal or at least not completely).

    Also we should not forget the religion aspect. Southern region are way more affected by christianity than northern and suicide is strictly forbidden by it.

    These are probably the easier reason to this statistic that you can find.

  4. I had no idea that Emilia-Romagna had such a high suicide rate. However, sometimes you hear of homicide-suicide events here, usually among family members for various reasons; that doesn’t help too.

  5. Italy, why so sad? If I was born in a country where there are lots of Fernet Branca and Amaretto, I would be so happy.

    It’s so sad.

  6. I had no idea Campania was the lowest one, and also by quite a bit of difference compared to the other regions. (I live there) I wonder why that is

  7. Sardinian here. As many noted it’s not overwhelmingly poor, however:
    – As a region, it has the lowest birthing rate in the whole of Europe. Plenty of elderly people who live for VERY long, no kids

    – No kids because people in childbearing age do not have stable/decently paying jobs. Most of the wealth is in the hand of a few old people. This is even more true for well qualified people. I have friends who were engineers who had to work two jobs to make 1000 euros per month. Of course their employers at their age were paid obscene amounts of money, and are now obscenely rich, underemploying people for no reason.

    – Sardinia also has the highest school dropout rate in Italy, and it’s overwhelmingly male. Basically most of our boys drop out of school, which leads to zero prospects. You can imagine the effects for mental health.

    – Sardinians don’t emigrate easily. Family ties are strong, even Rome feels as far as Berlin due to insularity, and people feel like that to emigrate you need a “starting capital” (” how will I pay rent if I don’t have a job already?”) . Also to be noted: before COVID only 20% of Italian companies had an online presence. Thus, to apply for a job you still have to physically be there. If we also add that in Italy still most unskilled jobs are given first and foremost to friends and family, it takes too long to get a job in Italy, and there’s little hope to find it anyway. Moreover, abroad seem impossible to many, it’s just a cultural thing. I have friends with a degree in languages who wouldn’t go abroad because they weren’t sure they could handle living and working in said languages. Huge insecurity.

    – Coming back to mental health. It’s famously expensive to receive mental health support, and there’s just too much pressure on the public and free regional health system. They can basically only cover extreme cases. Plus there isn’t really a culture yet of taking care of one’s mental health, especially for men. People tend to only value psychiatry rather than psychology, and then go to very old professionals (the “famous professors” some kind of guarantee of effectiveness) who tend to pump people with meds, with very old approaches.

    – All this said…one of my friends took his own life 15 years ago. He was only 19, quite depressed, probably with other troubles too. Told his friends he wouldn’t go to school to hang out at his family’s beach house, so he asked them to cover up for him in case school or home enquired where he was. He hung himself in the beach house. We couldn’t believe it, because to us he was having just common “guy troubles” (smoked too many joints, had to repeat a school year, was getting support for sleep problems). He had a girlfriend, he still saw friends, still came to bonfires on the beach. Still seemed himself. What did we know? He received professional support, how good I can’t tell you, but it wasn’t enough. Rest in peace Giovanni, we will never forget you.

  8. Strange that they never use this when they rate quality of Life in Italy, in which south cities are Always the last.

    Spoiler: for me those rankings are shit.

  9. There is a bridge in Sicily by modica I think or Ragusa that they had to fence it up real high because people used it to kill themselves

  10. The fact that the suicide rate is one of the highest in Emilia Romagna is weird to me. Is one of the regions with the highest HDI and GDP, and cities are well connected and not isolated and services generally work well.

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