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County-level income inequality and suicide in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Frank, Mark W.
  • Gonzalez, Fidel

Abstract

We introduce a new county-level panel of annual U.S. income inequality measures for 2010–2021 and make the dataset publicly available with planned annual updates. The panel harmonizes upper-tail indicators (e.g., Top 10%, Top 5%, and Top 1% income shares) with full-distribution indices, enabling comparisons that standard sources do not permit. The panel provides the first county-level estimates of top income shares, previously unavailable for the United States. Linking these measures to suicide mortality and rich covariates, we find that higher upper-tail income concentration is associated with higher suicide mortality in nonmetropolitan and micropolitan counties, whereas distribution-wide indices (e.g., the Gini) exhibit weaker or null associations. A proxy for firearm availability is positively related to suicide rates, and the uninsured rate is a significant risk factor even after controlling for earnings, unemployment, population scale, and demographics. Results are robust to alternative population weights, clustering, lags, rural–urban definitions, and expanded control sets.

Suggested Citation

  • Frank, Mark W. & Gonzalez, Fidel, 2026. "County-level income inequality and suicide in the United States," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:61:y:2026:i:c:s1570677x26000304
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2026.101600
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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior

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