An analysis of the suicide rates of birth cohorts in Canada

An earlier study (Lester, 1984) found that, in the United States, cohorts that had a high suicide rate at one point in their life span had low suicide rates at other points, and vice versa. This result suggested that only a limited number of people in each cohort were suicide-prone. The present paper replicates this result, using Canadian data from 1921 to the present time.