Suicide Rates & Social Media Impact

An examination of suicides across several decades, countries and generations that also looks at the correlation between social media use and suicide rates in the U.S. in more recent years among younger generations. Researchers continue to study a potential causal link between social media use and mental health diseases, including suicides and suicidal tendences. A growing number of studies link frequent social media use to a loss of sleep, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem and a feeling of loneliness.

Suicide is a serious societal problem and the result of complex socioeconomic and cultural factors. Even if our analysis should show that social media use only has minimal impact, we believe any measure to decrease risk and increase suicide prevention is worth pursuing.

Our project is split in two parts: a thorough analysis of a public Kaggle dataset of suicides between 1985 and 2015, and the overlay of a U.S. social media use dataset by Pew Research with data from 2005 through 2015.

Our Github repository includes additional details on our data cleaning and analysis process, as well as our two multivariate regression models for Machine Learning

Visit our Github Repo

Analysis Goals

We want to analyze how suicide rates changed over the decades and across different generations to determine specific patterns and identify high-risk groups for suicide. We plan to use two types of regression analyses to determine if our algorithm can accurately predict suicide rates among the different generations we identify.

We also want to determine whether an uptick in social media use in recent years overlaps with an increase in suicide rates, particularly among younger cohorts who use social media in the greatest numbers. To determine correlation, we plan to visualize U.S. suicide rates and social media use over time.

Data Analysis Team

Team of the UT Austin Data Analysis and Visualization course that worked on this project:

Quang Nguyen

Tina Bellon

Namrata Shah

Nensi Dobaria

Ima Richburg

Visualizations

A visual exploration of our datasets. Individual images are accompanied by text and link to interactive features, such maps and Tableau graphics.

Suicide Map
An interactive map of global per-capita suicides that lets users toggle between generations to explore differences in suicide rates across countries and ages. The map vividly displays how older generations commit suicides on much greater scale than younger ones. Explore the Map
Suicides by Generation
The Greatest Generation (also known as G.I. Generation, those born between 1901 and 1927) and Silent Generation (born between 1928 and 1945) has seen suicides significantly above the generational average on a per-capita basis. Details

Suicides & Age

Exploring the relationship between suicide rates and age.

Suicides by Age
Across the world, older people commit suicides at much higher rates than young people. The suicide rate on a per-100,000 population basis among those 75 and older is more than twice as high as among those between the ages of 15 and 24. Several researchers have attributed late-life suicides to poor mental and physical health and loneliness. Details
Suicide Trends by Age
While suicides among those 75 and older still make up the highest rate of suicides, suicides in that age group have decreased significantly since their peak in 1995. Suicides across other age groups have similarly decreased in the same time frame, albeit not as drastically. Details

Suicides & Gender

Exploring the relationship between suicides and gender.

Suicides by Gender
Males die by suicide at significantly higher rates than females, a trend that has been consistent over the decades and that researchers attribute to males being less inclined to seek help and more strongly connected to economic downturns than female suicides. But male suicides on a per-100k population basis have steadily declined since their peak in 1995. Details
Suicides by Gender
While male suicides outstrip female suicides in every generation, the ratio of male to female suicides is particularly elevated among Boomers, Gen X and Millennials, where nearly four male suicides occur for every female suicide. The ratio is much smaller among the Great and Silent Generation. Details

Suicides & Social Media

Exploring the relationship between suicides and social media use.

U.S. Generation Suicides & Social Media
Generational suicides and social media use in the U.S. appear to have an inverse relationship, according to our data. Per-capita suicides decrease with each new generation while social media use rapidly increases. Details
U.S. Yearly Suicides & Social Media
Suicides have increased slightly between 2015 - the year when our social media dataset starts - and 2015 - the year when our suicide dataset ends. We cannot discern a relationship between the two metrics, however. Details

Analysis Findings

We found that global suicide rates have decreased since their peak in 1995, but particularly high suicide rates continue to be driven by countries of the former Soviet Union. Older generations and particularly older people above the age of 75 are at the highest risk for suicide. While the suicide rate of the oldest age group has dropped steadily since 1995, those older than 75 remain significantly more likely to commit suicide. Males continue to be at siginificantly higher risk of committing suicide than females, with the male-to-female suicide ratio being particularly high among Boomers, Gen X and Millennials.

When it comes to U.S. social media use and its relationship to U.S. suicides, we have not been able to establish a connection based on the limited data we have (more details in our limitations section). In fact, there appears to be an inverse relationship based on our data, with an increase in U.S. social media running counter to the number of suicides in each generation and age group. Furthermore, social media use does not explain the high suicide rates among the Silent Generation (those born between 1928 and 1945) whose social media consume is very low.

Suicide Rates & Social Media Impact

Analysis Goals

Data Analysis Team

Team of the UT Austin Data Analysis and Visualization course that worked on this project:

Quang Nguyen

Tina Bellon

Namrata Shah

Nensi Dobaria

Ima Richburg

Visualizations

Suicide Map

Suicides by Generation

Suicides & Age

Suicides by Age

Suicide Trends by Age

Suicides & Gender

Suicides by Gender

Suicides by Gender

Suicides & Social Media

U.S. Generation Suicides & Social Media

U.S. Yearly Suicides & Social Media

Analysis Findings

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