40ish males¡¯ death rate triple women¡¯s

Slumped over at home and sandwiched between superiors and juniors at work, Korean men in their 40s do not have it easy. They are stressed everywhere they turn.

The 1999 survey by the National Statistical Office has revealed what it called "40ish male exhaustion." The death rate for men in their 40s in Korea is three times higher than that of women of the same age group, and the overall early death rate of men is 24.3% higher than that for women.

Last year, for the first time, the death rate among men in their 40s surpassed the triple rate of women. Breaking down the ages, men 40 to 44 recorded a death rate of 3.8 per 1,000, and men 45 to 49 recorded 5.7 deaths; women recorded 1.2 and 1.9 respectively.

If the numbers are extrapolated, it would mean that the death rate between genders recorded 305.4 for men in their early 40s and 301.8 for men in their late 40s. The numbers are about 1.5 times greater than other developed nations such as Japan (190), the United Kingdom (150), and the United States (180).

The death rate imbalance between genders of the people in their 40s has been climbing since 1970. The burden of the economic development fell on the shoulders of 40ish males. In 1970, the numbers were 171 (40-44) and 211 (45-49), then the numbers increased to double the women's rate to 210 and 220 in 1980, then now has tripled at the dawn of the 21st century.

Lee Myung-Jai mjlee@donga.com