Suicide in Russia

Abstract

From 1965 through 1996 1.4 million people committed suicide in Russia. Approximately one-fifth of them were women. This ratio is quite stable and close to the world figure of 1 : 3 or 1 : 4. The proportion of women increased notably only in 1985-89, evidently a consequence of the unusual drop in male suicides during the anti-alcohol campaign. In recent years the increase of male suicides has considerably exceeded that of female suicides, which is not rising very rapidly. There were fewer female suicides in 1994 than in 1984, causing the proportion of female suicides to drop to 16.8 percent in 1994 (see Table [1]).