[The suicide rate in Czechoslovakia 1975-1990]

The author investigates the development of the suicide rate in Czechoslovakia in 1975-1990. From comparison of statistics in the Annual Statistical Report and statistics of UZIS he concludes that the Annual Statistical Report provides more accurate data. According to data in the latter the annual suicide rate in recent years is by 500-800 suicides higher than according to UZIS. Using the method of the smallest squares, linear trends of the suicide rate are calculated according to both sources for the Czechoslovak Republic and the Czech and Slovak Republic separately. The decline is more marked in the Czech and Slovak Republic where the suicide rate is higher and thus a convergent trend was recorded. These conclusions are supported by linear trends developmental trends obtained from the above sources differ as to the degree of convergence; while according to data in the Annual Statistical Report data in the Czech and Slovak Republic will be equal during future decades, according to data from UZIS equal levels were reached already between 1989 and 1990. The author discusses the reliability of statistics of the suicide rate, possible escapes associated with different types of collection of data and the comparability of statistics where it is obvious that they are not quite complete.