Is there a rural suicide problem?

Suggestions that youth suicide rates are disproportionately higher in rural areas were explored using Queensland cause-of-death data supplied by Queensland Health for the years 1986 to 1990. Standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) were compared across three zones: urban, provincial and rural, for three age bands: all ages, 15 to 19 years and 20 to 29 years, for each sex. This Queensland study did not find a statistically significant excess of rural youth suicides. Further study of this phenomenon involving other states is called for.