A fascinating statistical table buried in the newly released United Nations 1999 Human Development Report shows that Lithuania, Estonia and Russia have the world's highest suicide rates, followed -- far behind -- by some industrialized countries like Austria, Belgium and the United States.

Latin American countries, with the exception of Cuba, are at the bottom of the list, suggesting either that their people are happier than others, or that they are better equipped to endure suffering, or that they are not reporting reliable figures. There is a grain of truth in all of these explanations, experts say.

Laura Mourino, a U.N. Development Program (UNDP) statistician who participated in the preparation of the report, concedes that many suicides in Latin America are not reported as such, because suicide is taboo in the region's Roman Catholic culture. Still, she believes the figures accurately reflect a much lower suicide rate in Latin America than in other parts of the world.

``One of the reasons why Latins have such low suicide rates is religion,'' she says. ``The prevailing religion in Latin America is Catholicism, and there is a cultural stigma in Catholic countries about suicide. People would rather sink into alcoholism or other vices than commit suicide.''

By comparison, there is less Catholic influence in Eastern European countries and Russia, where suicide rates are the highest, she said. In addition, the transition to capitalism was traumatic in many former Soviet republics and many people could not cope with it, she said.

``There is a theory that, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the economic crisis has resulted in tremendous stress and depression, particularly of men, who have not been able to penetrate the market,'' she said. ``There is something to be said about the correlation between economic crises and suicide rates.''

According to the UNDP report, the country with the most suicides is Lithuania, with 79 males and 16 females taking their lives annually for every 100,000 people. By comparison the rate in the United States is 20 males and 4.5 females per 100,000.

In Latin America, the country that has by far the highest suicide rate is Cuba, with an annual male suicide rate of 26 per 100,000 people, followed by Argentina with 11, Chile 10, Venezuela 8 and Colombia 6, according to the UNDP.

A separate study on Cuba's suicide rates published last year by the Cuban American National Council reported that Cuba's suicide rate nearly tripled in recent years, from 8 per 100,000 people in 1969 to 23.2 per 100,000 in 1982.

That study further reported that women in Cuba are significantly more likely to kill themselves than their foreign counterparts. While the world average is one woman for every three men, the island's ratio is nearly 1-1, it said.

But, Cuba aside, the worldwide suicide table released this week shows that Latin Americans seem to have more reasons to cling to life than others, even amid their periodic economic crises.