Time trend by region of suicides and suicidal thoughts among Greenland Inuit

Figures & data

Table I. Suicides among Inuit in Greenland 1901–2011

	N	N per year	Crude rate per 100,000 person-years
1901–1930	10	0.3	2.4
1924–1933	5.3	0.5	3.5
1951–1954	1	0.1	0.5
1955–1959	0	0.0	0.0
1960–1964	23	4.6	14.4
1965–1969	33	6.6	18.1
1970–1974	56	11.2	28.3
1975–1979	91	18.2	45.0
1980–1984	203	40.6	96.5
1985–1989	261	52.2	117.2
1990–1994	238	47.6	101.0
1995–1999	245	49.0	100.3
2000–2004	227	45.4	91.2
2004–2009	211	42.2	84.0
2010–2011	111	55.5	110.4
1970–2011	1,678	40.0	87.7
Capital	303	7.2	86.6
Towns in West Greenland	837	19.9	81.2
Villages in West Greenland	222	5.3	61.4
East and North Greenland	307	7.3	187.5
			p<0.0001*

Source: Bertelsen 1935; reports of the Chief Medical Officer for Greenland; Greenland registry of causes of death.

*p for difference between regions (Chi-square).

Table II. Suicides and suicidal thoughts by age and sex among Inuit in Greenland 2000–2011

	Suicidal thoughts last year per 1,000 participants		Suicides per 100,000 person-years
	2005–2010		2000–2011
Age	Men	Women	Men	Women
10–14			45	32
15–19	91	188	297	152
20–24	136	183	416	97
25–29	128	144	251	63
30–34	107	108	147	84
35–44	71	100	139	44
45–54	38	70	105	51
55+	19	14	74	24
	P<0.0001	P<0.0001	P<0.0001	P<0.0001

p-Values for differences among age groups (Chi-square).

Fig. 1 Suicides per 100,000 person-years by age group among Inuit men and women in Greenland 1970–2011. N=1,687.

Fig. 2 Suicides per 100,000 person-years by age group in four 10-year birth cohorts. Inuit in Greenland born from 1950 to 1989. N=1,346.

Fig. 3 Temporal trend of suicides in 4 regions of Greenland. Inuit in Greenland. Rates per 100,000 person-years standardized to World Standard Population 2000–2025. N=1,669.

Fig. 4 Prevalence of recent (within 1 year) suicidal thoughts in 1993–1994 and 2005–2010 in 4 regions of Greenland. A: Inuit men (N=604 and 1,034, respectively); B: Inuit women (N=664 and 1,214, respectively).

Fig. 5 Suicide experience in a fictive cohort of Inuit born 1960–1974.