Share of some other race, not Hispanic and Share of suicides by firearm
Across 625 counties, Share of some other race, not Hispanic and Share of suicides by firearm have a link of -0.55, on a scale from −1 (opposite) to +1 (in step). But compare places with the same population density, income and education, and a weak link of -0.23 remains. Most of the first figure came from both measures following how urban, rich and educated a place is, not from a link with each other.
Mostly gone after adjusting
Every place, plotted
One dot for each place reporting both measures. Hover over or tap a dot to see its name and values. The thin line is the straight line that best fits the dots. The bold line, shown for counties, is the link after adjusting for density, income and education. A dot far from the lines is a place that does not follow the pattern.
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What each measure is
Share of some other race, not Hispanic
The percentage of residents who report some other race alone and are not Hispanic. It is small almost everywhere. It is included so the eight shares cover everyone, with nobody left over.
Census ACS 5-year · ACS table B03002_008, divided by total population
Share of suicides by firearm
The percentage of suicides that were by gun, 2018-2023. Where more households own guns, more suicides are by gun. So researchers use this as the standard stand-in for gun ownership, which nobody counts directly.
CDC WONDER mortality; RAND firearm ownership database · CDC WONDER underlying cause of death, suicide by intent, firearm by mechanism, 2018-2023
Highest and lowest
Where each measure is highest and lowest among the places reporting both (2023), with the other measure beside it. This is shown for every size of place where both are published. Metro-area values are added up from their counties. A measure that cannot be added up across counties, such as a middle value (median), has no metro figure. Counts are shown per 1,000 residents, since raw totals would only list the largest places. Cities and towns and ZIP codes are shown where the Census survey or the CDC publishes them; most other sources stop at the county. They are shown for places of 5,000 residents or more, and only where the survey’s margin of error is small enough for the figure to be usable. The CDC publishes its health estimates for cities in a version adjusted for age, so places with older or younger people can be compared fairly, but not for ZIP codes.
Counties
By share of some other race, not Hispanic
| Share of some other race, not Hispanic | Share of suicides by firearm | |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | ||
| Plymouth County, MA | 2.52% | 25.1% |
| Queens County, NY | 2.26% | 10.5% |
| Schenectady County, NY | 1.69% | 30.8% |
| Bristol County, MA | 1.63% | 25.7% |
| Essex County, NJ | 1.43% | 21.9% |
| Lowest | ||
| Van Buren County, AR | 0% | 60.7% |
| Stone County, AR | 0% | 82.1% |
| Sharp County, AR | 0% | 62.1% |
| Searcy County, AR | 0% | 86.7% |
| Scott County, AR | 0% | 71.4% |
By share of suicides by firearm
| Share of some other race, not Hispanic | Share of suicides by firearm | |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | ||
| Harrison County, MO | 0% | 100% |
| Gates County, NC | 0% | 100% |
| Pendleton County, WV | 0% | 100% |
| Hale County, AL | 0% | 100% |
| Pemiscot County, MO | 0% | 93.8% |
| Lowest | ||
| New York County, NY | 0.801% | 6.48% |
| Queens County, NY | 2.26% | 10.5% |
| Kings County, NY | 0.981% | 12.2% |
| Bronx County, NY | 0.995% | 12.7% |
| Hudson County, NJ | 0.875% | 14.7% |
States
By share of some other race, not Hispanic
| Share of some other race, not Hispanic | Share of suicides by firearm | |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | ||
| Massachusetts | 1.15% | 22% |
| New York | 0.901% | 27.3% |
| Rhode Island | 0.773% | 27% |
| New Jersey | 0.751% | 27% |
| Connecticut | 0.728% | 30.3% |
| Lowest | ||
| North Dakota | 0.245% | 59% |
| Iowa | 0.248% | 48.9% |
| Arkansas | 0.257% | 62.6% |
| Kentucky | 0.263% | 63.9% |
| Oklahoma | 0.281% | 61.5% |
By share of suicides by firearm
| Share of some other race, not Hispanic | Share of suicides by firearm | |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | ||
| Mississippi | 0.322% | 70.8% |
| Wyoming | 0.555% | 70.6% |
| Alabama | 0.307% | 70.5% |
| Louisiana | 0.46% | 65.6% |
| South Carolina | 0.435% | 64.7% |
| Lowest | ||
| Hawaii | 0.348% | 19% |
| Massachusetts | 1.15% | 22% |
| District of Columbia | 0.64% | 24% |
| Rhode Island | 0.773% | 27% |
| New Jersey | 0.751% | 27% |
Metro areas
By share of some other race, not Hispanic
| Share of some other race, not Hispanic | Share of suicides by firearm | |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | ||
| East Stroudsburg, PA | 1.4% | 62.7% |
| Barnstable Town, MA | 1.25% | 22.5% |
| Cheyenne, WY | 1.23% | 75% |
| Kingston, NY | 1.23% | 40.1% |
| Providence-Warwick, RI-MA | 1.22% | 26.7% |
| Lowest | ||
| Weirton-Steubenville, WV-OH | 0% | 67.7% |
| Weatherford, OK | 0% | 58.1% |
| Victoria, TX | 0% | 68.4% |
| Vernon, TX | 0% | 84.2% |
| Valdosta, GA | 0% | 68.4% |
By share of suicides by firearm
| Share of some other race, not Hispanic | Share of suicides by firearm | |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | ||
| Mount Sterling, KY | 0% | 85.7% |
| Vernon, TX | 0% | 84.2% |
| Grenada, MS | 0% | 82.4% |
| Natchez, MS-LA | 0% | 77.7% |
| Eufaula, AL-GA | 0% | 77.3% |
| Lowest | ||
| Urban Honolulu, HI | 0.293% | 16.6% |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | 1.03% | 18.1% |
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | 1.2% | 20.8% |
| Kahului-Wailuku, HI | 0% | 21.1% |
| Barnstable Town, MA | 1.25% | 22.5% |
Cities and towns — Share of suicides by firearm is not published for cities and towns
By share of some other race, not Hispanic
| Share of some other race, not Hispanic | Share of suicides by firearm | |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | ||
| Brockton city, MA | 6.8% | — |
| Framingham city, MA | 6.26% | — |
| New Bedford city, MA | 4.17% | — |
| Milford CDP, MA | 4.08% | — |
| Marlborough city, MA | 3.91% | — |
| Lowest | ||
| Terryville CDP, CT | 0% | — |
| Southwood Acres CDP, CT | 0% | — |
| Sandy Hook CDP, CT | 0% | — |
| Ridgefield CDP, CT | 0% | — |
| Pawcatuck CDP, CT | 0% | — |
ZIP codes — Share of suicides by firearm is not published for ZIP codes
By share of some other race, not Hispanic
| Share of some other race, not Hispanic | Share of suicides by firearm | |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | ||
| ZIP 11419 (New York city, NY) | 19.7% | — |
| ZIP 11436 (New York city, NY) | 11.7% | — |
| ZIP 07105 (Newark city, NJ) | 8.66% | — |
| ZIP 01702 (Framingham city, MA) | 8.45% | — |
| ZIP 11420 (New York city, NY) | 8.4% | — |
| Lowest | ||
| ZIP 08867 (Hunterdon County, NJ) | 0% | — |
| ZIP 08853 (Neshanic Station CDP, NJ) | 0% | — |
| ZIP 08833 (Hunterdon County, NJ) | 0% | — |
| ZIP 08826 (Hunterdon County, NJ) | 0% | — |
| ZIP 08758 (Ocean County, NJ) | 0% | — |
Counties furthest from the pattern
Compared with the straight line that best fits all 625 counties: the five with far more share of suicides by firearm than their share of some other race, not Hispanic would suggest, and the five with far less.
| Share of some other race, not Hispanic | Share of suicides by firearm | |
|---|---|---|
| Above the line | ||
| Laramie County, WY | 1.23% | 75% |
| Fulton County, PA | 1.32% | 71.4% |
| Harrison County, MO | 0% | 100% |
| Gates County, NC | 0% | 100% |
| Pendleton County, WV | 0% | 100% |
| Below the line | ||
| Honolulu County, HI | 0.293% | 16.6% |
| New York County, NY | 0.801% | 6.48% |
| Berkshire County, MA | 0.384% | 22.9% |
| Richmond County, NY | 0.539% | 20.5% |
| Northwest Arctic Borough, AK | 0% | 35.1% |
Two series, one county
Both measures over time for a county you pick. The two charts are stacked, so they share only the years along the bottom. You can pick from the thirty largest counties reporting both. This panel covers 2010–2024, and a measure published only once shows as a single dot.
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Every version of the link
Each row measures the same link, from −1 to +1, in a different way. If the rows mostly agree, the link does not depend on one choice of method.
| Before adjusting for anything | -0.545 | 625 counties reporting both |
| After adjusting for density, income and education | -0.231 | the part of the link that is not just how urban, rich and educated a place is |
| Also adjusting for population size | -0.195 | size taken out as well as density |
| Also comparing only within each state | -0.011 | each county is compared only with others in its own state, so this is no longer a comparison between states |
| Giving bigger counties more weight | -0.349 | the adjusted link for the average resident rather than the average county. With this weighting, the data counts for about 157 equally weighted counties |
| Middle value inside single states | -0.379 | the link worked out inside each of 10 states with at least 20 counties reporting |
| Using ranks, after adjusting | -0.113 | uses each county’s rank, not its value, so a few extreme counties cannot create the link |
How much to believe it
Could it be chance?
The p-value is the chance of seeing a link this strong if there were really none. A value of 0.05 or less means the link is unlikely to be chance. Very small values are written in short form: 3.1e-16 means 0.00000000000000031, and the bigger the number after “e-”, the smaller the value. Treating every county as a separate case gives p = 5.6e-9. But counties in the same state tend to resemble each other, so the better figure allows for that: p = 0.000. The site tested 20,910 pairs, and testing so many turns up some flukes. The q-value allows for that too. For this pair it is 1.2e-8.
Do nearby places look alike?
Moran’s I measures how much nearby places look alike: 0 means no map pattern, and higher means neighbours are more similar. For the part of each county that the adjustment leaves unexplained, it is +0.43 (p = 0.001). That unexplained part still clusters on the map. So some regional factor shared by both measures is not accounted for.
Did they change together?
Not measurable: at least one of these is published for too few of the years a change needs (2014–2019 or 2019–2023), or for too few counties in both.
Related pairs
- Median property tax bill and Share of suicides by firearm — -0.42
- Share of suicides by firearm and Returns reporting unemployment compensation — -0.39
- Effective property tax rate and Share of suicides by firearm — -0.35
- Share American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic and Share of suicides by firearm — -0.34
- Republican share of the two-party vote, 2008 and Share of suicides by firearm — +0.33
- Republican share of the two-party vote, 2012 and Share of suicides by firearm — +0.33
- Share of suicides by firearm and Catholic adherents — -0.33
- Republican share of the two-party vote, 2000 and Share of suicides by firearm — +0.33
Association only. Nothing here shows that either measure changes the other. This describes counties, not the people in them. Two measures going together across places does not mean the same people have both. How the US county data works · Explore Share of some other race, not Hispanic and Share of suicides by firearm