I think the news organizations are misleading the public about the suicide rates of U.S. veterans.
They report that veterans have a suicide rate that is twice the general population.
But then I thought, those two groups don't have the same gender ratio.
In the group veterans, the ratio of men to women is about 10:1
In the group general population, the ratio of men to women is 97:100
But the ratio of men to women suicide for the general population is 3.5:1
So, these numbers seem to indicate that being a veteran doesn't mean they have a higher rate of suicide because gender isn't being factored into the information.
An interesting point you make there Mr ESB, these sort of statistics always turn out more complex than folk think. Actually most things turn out more complex than I think they will be.
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