Korean Suicide Rate Continues to Rise

Suicide rate in Korea continues to increase.

According to the National Statistical Office yesterday, Korea’s suicide rate (the number of suicides out of 100,000 people) was 26.1 last year, the highest among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries.

Last year, 12,000 people killed themselves. That means an average 33 people per day or one person every 44 minutes took their own lives.

Cancer has been the first major cause of death for the 22 years in a row.

Suicide among senior citizens particularly high-

The suicide rate last year more than doubled from that of 1995 (11.8). The rate has increased for the 5 consecutive years since 2001.

Korea ranked 4th in suicide rate among OECD members back in 2003, and has recorded the highest suicide rate for 2 years in a row since 2004.

When analyzing the rate in terms of gender and age, twice the number of men committed suicide (34.9 people out of 100,000) than women (17.3 people), and older people tended to kill themselves more than the young.

In particular, the rising suicide rate of senior citizens showed that lack of proper welfare system for them is one of suicide causes in a rapidly aging society.

Older people committed suicide much more than the young: an average 54.6 people in their 60s, 80.2 in their 70s and 127.0 in 80s out of 100,000 people took their lives while around 17.7 in 20s and 21.8 in 30s took their lives.

Psychiatry Professor Lee Hong-shik at Yonsei University College of Medicine said, “When I am consulted with senior citizens about suicide, they get seriously depressed when they are not supported properly by their family members. So, the government should take more measures for their welfare.”

Cancer, the leading cause of death–

Last year, a total of 245,511 people or 673 a day died.

The death rate of male was 1.2 times higher than that of female. The death rate of men in their 50s was 2.85 times higher than that of their female counterparts. Also, the numbers of men who died of liver-related diseases in their 40s and 50s were 7.45 times and 7.26 times more than women in the same age brackets respectively.

Cancer increased the death rate the most among diseases when compared to 1995. Deaths caused by cancer rose 23.7 from 110.8 in 1995 to 134.5 last year. Lung cancer was the major cause of death with the rate of 28.4, followed by gastric cancer (22.6), liver cancer (22.5) and colon cancer (12.5).

Compared to 10 years ago, lung cancer deaths surged by 9.5 with large intestine cancer and prostate cancer increasing by 6.7 and 2.5 deaths, respectively while that of gastric cancer and uterus cancer dropped 3.9 and 0.6, respectively.

The cause of death whose death rate decreased the most, however, was traffic accidents. The death rate caused by traffic accidents reduced to 16.3 last year from 38.7 in 1995.

sublime@donga.com