Dark contrasts: The paradox of high rates of suicide in happy places

► We show that adjusted suicide rates tend to be highest in happy places. ► We use data on a random sample of more than one million individuals across the US states. ► We replicate our key result on country-level data for Europe. ► The explanation for this empirical paradox is currently unknown. ► It may be that it is particularly painful to be unhappy if surrounded by happy individuals.