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Comment by intoverflow2 | Hacker News Reader

> which is very likely because they are the most likely to own guns

America is not the world

I think the data were taken among Americans (they included Native Americans). You're right though, and looking at data from other countries with stronger gun restrictions would be an interesting way to check this hypothesis.

In England you can use the Office for National Statistics data sets. These are good quality, and they're very clear about what is or isn't counted as a death by suicide.

http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdea...

You can also use the Public Health England "Fingertips" datasets which breaksdown the data a bit more.

Here's the main Fingertips site: http://fingertips.phe.org.uk/

And here's the Fingertips mental health stuff: http://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile-group/mental-health

And here's the Fingertips suicide stuff: http://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile-group/mental-health/pro...

Currently the ratio of deaths by suicide for men:women is something like 4:1 or 3:1, and we think that's because (as you've said) men tend to use more lethal methods. (Although we've seen a really worrying increase in lethality of method in women in the UK).

Go careful when comparing the UK stats with the US. I think we count different things. For example: a death that would be counted as a suicide in someone over the age of 15 is not counted as a suicide in someone under the age of 15. I don't think the US does that.

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