One major problem with the status integration theory is that the temporal quality of the postulated inverse relation between status integration and suicide rates has not been specified. If the measure of status integration is for some point in, say, 1970, then the suicide rate could be for 1970, 1970–71, 1970–72, etc. Experimentation to identify the optimum period for the rate is difficult because suicide statistics are compiled by the calendar year, and it could be that the optimum is not the same for all populations. But there would be no particular problem if for all populations the annual number of suicides is constant over a long period, because the rate would be approximately the same regardless of the years considered. That line of reasoning is extended to a proposition:the greater the fluctuation in the annual number of suicides for each population over a period, the less inverse the relation between the suicide rate for that period and the measure of status integration at any point in that period. Tests based on data for white males and white females in the United States are consistent with the proposition.