The suicide rate in the Republic has risen to almost twice that in Northern Ireland, the North-South study shows.
In 1998, the last year for which figures are given, 421 men and 83 women took their lives in the Republic compared to 95 men and 31 women in the North. This translates as 13.6 suicides per 100,000 population in the Republic compared to 7.4 suicides per 100,000 in the North.
The report shows that suicide is on the increase in the Republic while the reverse is the case in Northern Ireland. In 1990, the North had a higher rate of suicide, with 9.3 such deaths per 100,000 compared to 9.0 for the Republic.
Dr Tony Byrne, a sociology lecturer at Maynooth College, said the reversal was related to changing economic conditions. "People thought that with the Celtic Tiger they'd have a better lifestyle, but they don't. The housing problem, in particular, is causing a lot of strain."
Cultural differences were also contributing to the higher suicide rate in the Republic, said Dr Byrne, who has organised courses on suicide on both sides of the Border, the latest of which will take place at St Mary's College in Dublin on January 16th.
"From my experience, I see clearly that in the North males express their feelings much better than in the South." He warned, however, that more recent figures showed an increase in suicide among civilians in the North as part of a "post-conflict syndrome".
"What tends to happen in conflict situations is that during war there are a lot of suicides in the armed forces. After war, these decrease while civilian suicides increase due to trauma."
In both jurisdictions, male suicides outnumbered female by about four to one throughout the 1990s.
Provisional figures for 1999 showed the suicide rate fell in the Republic to 11.9 such deaths per 100,000 population. However, many observers believe these official figures underestimate the true suicide rate.
A study by a team of consultant psychiatrists last year found that up to 28 per cent of suicides in some areas were not being reported to the Central Statistics Office.
Regarding other health indicators, the North and South are more closely aligned. However, Northern Ireland does show slightly higher rates of cancer, as well as heart and lung disease deaths.
Despite this, life expectancies are marginally higher in the North at 74 years for men compared to 73 in the Republic.
In both jurisdictions, life expectancies for women at birth are 79 but at age 65 they are higher, by a year, in Northern Ireland: 18 years compared to 17. Another shared feature is the decline in birth and marriage rates in both jurisdictions.
The average age at which women give birth is also rising North and South. Between 1980 and 1998, the percentage of births to women aged under 25 fell from 27 per cent to 20 per cent. In Northern Ireland, the corresponding proportion fell from 37 per cent to 24 per cent.
In addition, more than a quarter of births on the island now occur outside marriage, a five-fold increase in the past two decades.
