Suicide and net migration in Texas counties, 1970 and 1980.

Abstract

Recent research has examined the consequences of migration, with much of this work focusing on "boom" towns. This literature provides a useful framework for studying the consequences of population growth in other settings, however. The boom-town literature has generally used the social disruption hypothesis, which predicts social disruptions in communities growing rapidly through migration, to explain the results of migration in these communities. Suicide is one social disruption indicator which has not received much empirical attention. According to the social disruption hypothesis, a positive relationship is expected between the net migration and suicide rates. We examine this hypothesis using data from Texas nonmetropolitan counties for the last two decades. We also present separate analyses for metropolitan counties. The results fail to provide support for the hypothesis. There is generally no relationship between net migration and suicide rates in both nonmetropolitan and metropolitan counties. Alternative explanations fail to alter this finding.