The study compares attempted suicide data among young women of two ethnic groups resident in native West Indian and immigrant Birmingham environments. Although African rates were higher than East Indian ones, the three-fold increase in the immigrant population was unrelated to ethnic origin. This was also true regarding clinical data, patients using psychotropic tablets and giving similar reasons for attempting suicide. Formal psychiatric diagnoses were, however, less frequently made in Birmingham where patients preferred analgesic tablets to the domestic agents used instead by the West Indian population. The aetiological significant of sociocultural factors is discussed.