Cancer, heart disease and pneumonia were among the key causes of death for South Koreans in 2023, data showed Friday, with suicide remaining the top factor among those in their 30s and younger.
Last year, the total number of deaths reported in the country came to 352,511, down 5.5 percent from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea.
The agency added 689.2 deaths were reported per 100,000 South Koreans last year, also down 38.3 from a year earlier.
The report showed that cancer accounted for 24.2 percent of total deaths in 2023, followed by heart disease with 9.4 percent and pneumonia with 8.3 percent. The three factors were responsible for more than 40 percent of total deaths.
Suicide, meanwhile, stood as the fifth-biggest cause of death for South Koreans at 4 percent.
A total of 13,978 people took their own lives in 2023, up 8.3 percent from a year earlier. The figure translates into 27.3 suicides for every 100,000 South Koreans.
It remained the main cause of death for people aged between 10 an
d 39 in South Korea in 2023, a chronic problem that has plagued Asia’s No. 4 economy for more than a decade.
Suicide was the second-biggest cause of death for South Koreans aged in their 40s and 50s as well, the data showed.
South Korea currently holds the highest suicide rate among the members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, with 24.1 out of every 100,000 people as of 2020, followed by Lithuania at a distant second with 18.5 and Slovenia with 15.7.
Source: Yonhap News Agency