[Predominance of urban suicides over rural suicides in Spain]

Abstract

Introduction: The different occurrence of Suicide depending on the rural/urban environment, as well as the interaction of this variable with others such as sex and age has given rise to a large quantity of investigations over the world. It was necessary to carry out in Spain an updated study of these characteristics.

Objective and methods: Our purpose is to work with the raw data referred to suicide in the two last Spanish Census years. 4,619 records of suicide are requested and obtained from the Spanish National Statistics Institute registered in the years 1981 and 1991. Adjusted rates by rural/urban environment, sex and age are established and compared to each other.

Results and conclusions: Suicide rate in Spain is always higher in the cities that in the country, no matter be sex or the age group. However, there appears to be no continuous relationship between Suicide and the environment variable, since the large cities seem to confer a certain prevention. On the other hand, the feminine urban suicidal behaviour is becoming quantitatively more and more similar to those of men.