The Eradication of Greenland’s Young Men
By: Peter Veldkamp
The statistics are grim, and they speak for themselves. In 1985, suicide in Greenland surpassed cancer as a cause of death.[1] Fifty Greenlanders died as a result of suicide that year, with young men making up more than half that amount.[2] While this number may seem insignificant, Greenland’s population is only a mere 56,100 people,[3] rendering this proportion comparable to the deaths of everyone in Orlando, Florida.[4] A death toll of this magnitude in the United States would certainly attract attention, yet many are still unaware of the suicide epidemic that currently ravages Greenland.[5] In fact, some organizations responsible for measuring suicide by country around the world intentionally omit Greenland from their date due to its small total population size, further contributing to unawareness.[6] However, this is not the only hurdle as many experts are still unsure why such an acute outbreak of suicides plagues Greenland.[7] This article discusses some of the potential risk factors that likely have contributed to these Greenlandic deaths.
Urbanization of Greenland is often cited as a potential cause, and for good reason.[8] Prior to 1960, the traditional hunting and fishing communities that comprised Greenland enjoyed one of the lowest suicide rates in the world – a mere .3 people per one-hundred thousand.[9] As various regions of the country were rapidly developed, suicide rates climbed to 100 per 100,000.[10] Studies found that undeveloped regions, such as coastal villages, had become alienated, and its residents frequently experienced feelings of isolation.[11] For example, remote regions like Tasiilaq can only be reached twice a week in the winter by a day-long helicopter flight that costs $1,000.[12] Similarly, polls indicate that villagers came to view living in the city as preferrable to village life, yet domestic migration was minimal.[13] By comparison, traditional Inuits who only recently experienced urbanization experienced a loss of self-identity without having an older generation they could relate to. Such feelings fit neatly into several of the risk factors for suicide identified by the CDC – namely, feelings of isolation and hopelessness.[14]
Another possible cause could be the method used to commit suicide.[15] Scandinavian counterparts tend to gravitate towards ingesting drugs in an attempt to overdose, but 91% of male Greenlander suicides are caused by firearms.[16] As a general rule, suicide by firearm is far more effective than drug ingestion, with efficacy rates of 82.5% and 1.5%, respectively.[17] In Greenland, hunting is a way of life.[18] There are nearly twenty-three firearms per one-hundred Greenlanders, making access to a lethal means of suicide a simple matter.[19] For reference, the only country to have more suicides by firearm in 2016 than the U.S. was Greenland.[20] Access to lethal methods is also identified by the CDC as a risk factor for suicide.[21]
Other experts suggest Greenland is falling prey to suicidal transmission phenomenon known as the “contagion effect.”[22] This theory proposes that when an individual commits suicide, associates of that individual who are already entertaining suicidal thoughts have a greater risk of suicide. [23] About 12.8% of male Greenlanders aged 25-29 had suicidal thoughts in the past year.[24] It is no surprise that a suicide affects a much larger percentage of the population, given the population of many of Greenland’s villages are only a few hundred people.[25] Consequently, waves of suicide among villages are common, with one study estimating that “60 percent of young people who killed themselves did so within four months of another suicide in the same district.”[26] The CDC corroborates “local epidemics of suicide” as a risk factor for suicide.[27]
Experts who study the Greenland suicide crisis put forth a variety of other possible reasons, including heightened rates of alcoholism, child neglect, reduced exposure to natural sunlight, and transition into a welfare state.[28] Once interesting study, proposing the culprit to be an unwillingness among young men to discuss the issue, found that the rate of actual suicide significant outpaced the rate of individuals who admitted in a survey that they experienced suicidal thoughts. Nevertheless, one thing is certain – suicide continues to be a leading cause of death among Greenlanders, particularly young men.[29] Additional studies and awareness are necessary to further explore proposed correlative factors.
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[1] Rebecca Hersher, The Artic Suicides: It’s Not The Dark That Kills You, NPR (April 21, 2016, 5:00 AM), https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/04/21/474847921/the-arctic-suicides-its-not-the-dark-that-kills-you.
[2] Id.
[3] Greenland, Britannica (2020), https://www.britannica.com/place/Greenland.
[4] US CENSUS BUREA QUICKFACTS: ORLANDO CITY FLORIDA (2019) (calculation adopted from Hersher’s article).
[5] Hersher, supra note 1.
[6] See Suicide (Death Rate per 100,000), WORLD HEALTH RANKINGS (2020); see also Suicide Rate by Country 2020, World Population Review (2020), https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/suicide-rate-by-country.
[7] Hersher, supra note 1.
[8] Peter Bjerregaard and Christina Viskum Lytken Larsen, Time Trend by Region of Suicides and Suicidal Thoughts Among Greenland Inuit, International Journal of Circumpolar Health, 2015, at 74.
[9] Jason George, The Suicide Capital of the World, Slate (Oct. 9, 2009), https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2009/10/why-do-so-many-greenlanders-kill-themselves.html.
[10] Id.
[11] Bjerregaard, supra note 8, at 74.
[12] Hersher, supra note 1.
[13] Bjerregaard, supra note 8, at 74.
[14] Suicide, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/suicide/riskprotectivefactors.html (last accessed Jan. 25, 2021).
[15] George, supra note 9.
[16] Id.
[17] Spicer, R.S. and Miller, T.R., Suicide Acts in 8 States: Incidence and Case Fatality Rates by Demographics and Method, 90 Am. J. of Pub. Health 12 (2000).
[18] George, supra note 9.
[19] Gun Ownership by Country 2020, World Population Review (2020), https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/gun-ownership-by-country.
[20] Jorge Ortiz, USA Leads World in Gun-Related Suicides, Study Says, USA TODAY (Aug. 28, 2018), https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/08/28/new-study-shows-u-s-leads-world-gun-suicides/1128184002/.
[21] CDC, supra note 13.
[22] Hersher, supra note 1.
[23] Id.
[24] Bjerregaard, supra note 8, at 74.
[25] Greenland, supra note 3.
[26] Hersher, supra note 1.
[27] CDC, supra note 13.
[28] George, supra note 8.
[29] Bjerregaard, supra note 8, at 74.