Suicide and Marital Status: An Empirical Study of 2017

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of marital status on the likelihood of committing suicide in the 21st Century. This study utilizes the 2017 Multiple Cause of Death mortality data from the National Vital Statistics System of the National Center for Health Statistics, which lends itself to robust probit regression analysis. Controlling for observable characteristics of the deceased (i.e., age group, education, gender, and race/ethnicity), the findings indicate that singles have a relatively lower probability of committing suicide than married individuals, while those who are divorced or widowed are at higher risk. This study also finds the surprising result that education may be negatively correlated with suicide risk. Overall, the findings in this study suggest that, once married, remaining in that marriage may be a protective factor against suicide, which suggests that the findings from previous studies still hold in 2017 despite the changing nature of marriage in the present era.