What Works

I went looking for information about suicide and American Indian populations because I know that this is one indicator of the mental and physical health of a population. There is written work on American Indians out there, but this was the best information graphic on the subject and it happens to come from Canada where the population in question is referred to as First Nations. I like it because it respects that there has been (and continues to be) a difference in the rate of male and female suicide victims. Women tend to attempt suicide more often; men tend to be more successful in their attempts. I like it because it shows that the teen years are the most dangerous years for First Nations members by continuing the analysis across all age groups. They could have just truncated the graph at age 35 or so, since they are primarily concerned with the teen years, but instead they show the entire range of age cohorts. The viewer has to pick up on the fact that the difference between suicide rates of First Nations vs. all Canadian populations is most during the teen years and then falls off so dramatically that there is hardly any difference in old age. When viewers have to figure things out for themselves they are more likely to remember and trust those insights. I like that the tabular data is appended below the graph.

What Needs Work

Bar graphs are best when they are simple and this one is beginning to move away from simple. There are four bars for each cohort – it’s still legible, but it’s becoming hard to grasp the message at a glance with all those comparisons going on at once.

Relevant Resources

The North American Aboriginal Two Spirit Information Pages University of Calgary