Comments on: Shortened Life Index http://english.martinvarsavsky.net/general/shortened-life-index.html Blog of an entrepreneur Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:31:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Guido http://english.martinvarsavsky.net/general/shortened-life-index.html#comment-178999 Guido Thu, 19 Mar 2009 01:43:25 +0000 http://english.martinvarsavsky.net/?p=2645#comment-178999 According to the statistics that I have seen, Colombia has now a lower murder rate than Venezuela. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_homicide_rate That agrees with my personal perception of crimes in both countries (I am Venezuelan). It would be very interesting to plot the relation between murders and suicides for the same country over time, some general trends might arise also if we plot the values of all countries. I made a graphic like that for other purpose using gapminder, and it is very informative, specially if you play with the variables a bit, and that is very easy to do. http://globallyconnected.blogspot.com/2009/03/on-taxes-and-growth.html According to the statistics that I have seen, Colombia has now a lower murder rate than Venezuela.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_homicide_rate
That agrees with my personal perception of crimes in both countries (I am Venezuelan).

It would be very interesting to plot the relation between murders and suicides for the same country over time, some general trends might arise also if we plot the values of all countries.
I made a graphic like that for other purpose using gapminder, and it is very informative, specially if you play with the variables a bit, and that is very easy to do.
http://globallyconnected.blogspot.com/2009/03/on-taxes-and-growth.html

]]> By: Philipp http://english.martinvarsavsky.net/general/shortened-life-index.html#comment-178528 Philipp Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:56:58 +0000 http://english.martinvarsavsky.net/?p=2645#comment-178528 Martin, have you also checked if there is a correlation of suicide rate and population density/ urbanization degree? I would expect countries with denser populations to have higher suicide rates. Martin, have you also checked if there is a correlation of suicide rate and population density/ urbanization degree? I would expect countries with denser populations to have higher suicide rates.

]]> By: Antoin O Lachtnain http://english.martinvarsavsky.net/general/shortened-life-index.html#comment-178508 Antoin O Lachtnain Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:20:29 +0000 http://english.martinvarsavsky.net/?p=2645#comment-178508 I understand there is an issue with WHO homicide figures for some countries. WHO goes off description on the death cert, and irish death certs (and possibly death certs from other countries) rarely meet the WHO criteria, even if the deaths are obviously some sort of homicide. This makes the rate look artificially low. (So it will say something like 'gunshot wound to the head' rather than 'homicide'.) I would say that the real rate of homicides in ireland is about 90 per year, which works out at around 2.25/100,000 people. There are also other methodological problems. There is a paper about this issue. http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/IHS%20methodology.pdf Suicide rates are also tough to measure, because of the stigma involved. It would certainly be an interesting project to try and control out some of these factors. I understand there is an issue with WHO homicide figures for some countries.

WHO goes off description on the death cert, and irish death certs (and possibly death certs from other countries) rarely meet the WHO criteria, even if the deaths are obviously some sort of homicide. This makes the rate look artificially low.

(So it will say something like ‘gunshot wound to the head’ rather than ‘homicide’.)

I would say that the real rate of homicides in ireland is about 90 per year, which works out at around 2.25/100,000 people.

There are also other methodological problems. There is a paper about this issue. http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/IHS%20methodology.pdf

Suicide rates are also tough to measure, because of the stigma involved.

It would certainly be an interesting project to try and control out some of these factors.

]]>