No. of suicide deaths in S. Korea hits 13-yr high in 2024
South Korea saw the highest number of suicide deaths in 13 years in 2024, with suicide becoming the major cause of death among those in their 40s and younger, Yonhap reports.
Last year, the total number of deaths reported in the country came to 358,569, up 1.7 percent from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea.
The agency said 702.6 deaths were reported per 100,000 South Koreans last year, also up 1.9 percent from a year earlier.
The report showed that cancer accounted for 24.8 percent of total deaths in 2024, followed by heart disease at 9.4 percent and pneumonia at 8.4 percent. The three factors were responsible for more than 42 percent of total deaths.
Suicide, meanwhile, stood as the fifth-biggest cause of death for South Koreans at 4.1 percent.
A total of 14,872 people took their own lives last year, up 6.3 percent from a year earlier. The figure translates into 29.1 suicides for every 100,000 South Koreans, the highest mark since 2011.
Suicide remained the main cause of death for people aged between 10 and 49 in South Korea in 2024, and the second-biggest cause of death for those in their 50s.
It marked the first time suicide was the No. 1 reason of death among 40-something-year-olds.
South Korea currently holds the highest suicide rate among the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which stood at 26.2 for every 100,000 people in 2024, far higher than the OECD average of 10.8.
It was reported earlier a record 527 children attending elementary, junior high and senior high schools in Japan died by suicide last year, up 14 from 2023 and topping the previous high of 514 in 2022, preliminary government data showed early 2025.
