An interesting challenge to me is: how are these numbers reconciled with understanding the communities involved? Most people on Hacker News, I think, would arg

An interesting challenge to me is: how are these numbers reconciled with understanding the communities involved? Most people on Hacker News, I think, would argue that NYC, Boston, and New Haven have more in common with each other than say, a rural, sub-10k population town in West Virginia. But in this analysis of suicide rates, it's actually places like New Haven County in Connecticut and Wirt County in West Virginia that are more statistically similar than either is to Boston or New York City. In my own state, Des Moines and Iowa City would both be in the same category as the very rural towns with marked increases in suicide rates. If the suicide rate is a regression to a mean, what is it about dense major cities that slowed that? And what is it that makes what I - an Iowan - think of as a city statistically similar to the poorest and most rural counties in America? Discussion aside, I encourage anyone who has considered taking their own life to reach out and talk to someone. National Suicide Prevention Hotline 1-800-273-8255