A Further Test of the Finno-Ugrian Suicide Hypothesis: Correspondence of County Suicide Rates in Romania and Population Proportion of Ethnic Hungarians

Abstract

Across the 42 counties of Romania, the total suicide rate and the population percentage of ethnic Hungarians were strongly positively interrelated (79% attributable variance). Counties with the strongest Hungarian minority had suicide rates converging to (or exceeding) the suicide rate for Hungary, which rate is high. Of a set of about 20 vital statistics and socioeconomic indicators, only life expectancy predicted a significant increment of further variance in the suicide rates. However, this effect was small, adding merely 3% further variance explained to 79% already accounted for. Overall, the findings are supportive of the Finno-Ugrian Suicide Hypothesis, i.e., the notion that geographic patterns of suicide prevalence may be partially due to genetic differences between populations. Supplemental analyses of a questionnaire item which specifically queried this study's main finding indicated widespread disbelief of this fact of suicide prevalence across a variety of samples, including two samples from Romania.