According to the New York Times:

The World Health Organization put the suicide rate in France at 26.4 per 100,000 for men and 9.2 for women in 2005. That is the highest among large European economies, but still well behind Japan. In the United States, the comparable rates are 17.7 for men and 4.5 for women.
Mental health experts are always extremely cautious about attributing a suicide to any one cause: one often never knows what forces act upon a person. But what has caught the attention of the public and the French government is that many of the suicides, and more than a dozen failed suicides, have been attributed by some experts and labor officials to work-related problems.

Why are all these people so stressed out? They are hyperprotected and, let’s face it, they aren’t working that much:

Despite the 35-hour workweek law, European Union data shows that the French last year worked a 41-hour week on average, putting them 13th of the 27 nations in the bloc. (Austria was ranked No. 1 at 44 hours.)

Here is an OECD chart that shows who’s working and how long:

In any case, this is a piece of data that kind of debunks the myth that the French are living the good life, thanks to their government programs and their lower work loads. And, actually, that’s probably what it is. People would rather work more and make more money than the contrary.

For more on this topic, read Reason’s Michael Moynihan’s excellent blog post here.