seriously, though, there are three basic patternsf suicide according tot he world health organization.
1. rates increases steadily w/ age
men austria, france, italy, japan, germany women austria, italy, japan, germany
for a sense of what this means, consider that the suicide rate for men 75 and older was 109/1000 in japan, 89/1000 in france, and in austria it was 75/1000 deaths.
2. suicide rates peak for men [15-34] and later for men 75 and up in countries like australia, canada, england, netherlands, united states. [descending order]
3. suicide rates peak 45-54 for men in denmark, finland, sweden and for women in australia, canada, france, netherlands, poland, sweden, u.s.a. [descending order]
a better way of thinking about the issue would be to ask if the suicides rates have always been 'high' in sweden and other countries whch have high rates. if so, then we can pretty much guess that socialism isn't the problem. turns out that sweden's suicide rate has been pretty steady at around 15-20/1000 throughout 20th c., with an upsurge in the 60s and 70s where it got it's rep. for having the highest suicide rate. hungary holds that position now, having achieved a rate in the 40s/1000 in the mid seventies, steadily rising from a rate that was about the same as sweden's and the USA's 50 yrs ago. it seems to me that the rise in rates during the 60s and 70s probably had something to do with sweden's age demographics.
here's the latest published rates that i have:
suicide per 1000 deaths [1994 world health organization]
Estonia 40.95 Hungary 35.38 Slovenia 31.16 Finland 27.26 Denmark 22.13 Austria 22.12 Switzerland 21.22 France 20.79 Mexico 17.58 Belgium 19.04 Japan 16.72 Sweden 15.75 Germany 15.64 Portugal 14.83 Singapore 14.06 Canada 13.19 Mauritius 12.98 Norway 13.64 New Zealand 12.81 Australia 12.65 Scotland 12.16 United States 12.06 Hong Kong 10.29 Netherlands 10.10 South Korea 9.48 Ireland 9.81 N. Ireland 8.41 Italy 8.00 England/Wales 7.68 Israel 7.05 Spain 7.77 Greece 3.40 Kuwait 1.66