RELIGIOUS HOMOGENEITY AND METROPOLITAN SUICIDE RATES

Numerous studies have examined the relationships between religious fac tors and aggregate suicide rates, with inconsistent findings. We exten d research on this topic by focusing on an overlooked variable: religi ous homogeneity, or the extent to which community residents adhere to a single religion or a small number of faiths. After developing a seri es of arguments linking religious homogeneity with lower suicide rates , we investigate this relationship using 1980 data on 296 SMSAs. As hy pothesized, religious homogeneity is inversely associated with suicide rates; its estimated effects are greater than those of the other reli gious variables that am widely used in studies of suicide - percent Ca tholic and church member rates - and they persist despite controls for established covariates of suicide rates. On closer inspection we find regional differences in the apparent influence of religious homogenei ty. Protective effects are strongest in the SMSAs of the Northeast, an d they also surface in the South, while they am weaker in other areas of the U.S.