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Taiwan Posts Highest Suicide Rate in Nine Years
An average of 6.4 people in Taiwan committed suicide daily in 2000, the highest suicide rate in nine years, according to reports quoting Taiwan officials as saying Thursday.
Some 2,360 people in Taiwan committed suicide last year, said the reports.
They noted that unemployment is a major cause of suicide in Taiwan. Fifty-eight percent of men who committed suicide were jobless, while half of women who committed suicide were housewives.
Another noteworthy phenomenon is that the suicide rate of people over 60 years of age increased by 12 percent from the previous year, with 39 cases of octogenarians or even older people taking their own lives.
The suicide rate among Taiwan's elderly has also continuously climbed along with the worldwide trend, the reports quoted Hu Wei- heng, a specialist in suicide, as saying.
Hu attributed the rise to the constant malaise which plagues older people as well as their pessimistic outlook on the future.
He said that society should be more concerned about the elderly and not only try to extend their live expectancy, but also improve the quality of their lives.
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