Korea's Highest in 9 Years..."This" ranked first among OECD countries. [Now News]

Last year, the suicide rate, which is the number of suicide deaths per 100,000 people, reached 8.5%, the highest in nine years.

According to the "2023 Cause of Death Statistics" released by the National Statistical Office on the 4th, the number of suicide deaths due to intentional self-harm increased by nearly 1,000 from the previous year to 13,978.

Suicide rates rose for the first time in two years, reaching 27.3 last year.

By age group, those in their 60s showed the largest increase with 13.6%, followed by those in their 50s (12.1%) and teenagers (10.4%).

Suicide was also considered the number one cause of death in their teens, 20s, and 30s.

In particular, the number of teenage deaths was 803 due to the increased suicide rate, the only increase of 0.9% (seven) in all age groups.

Lim Young-il, director of the population trend division at the National Statistical Office, explained, "The fact that the economic difficulties of COVID-19 continued and the relative deprivation after COVID-19 mentally seems to have affected it."

The OECD standardized suicide rate was 24.8 in Korea, the highest in the world. The OECD average was 10.7.

AI Anchor: Y-GO
Edit Caption: Jung Jin

※ If you have difficulties to talk about, such as depression, or if you have family members or acquaintances who are experiencing such difficulties, you can receive 24-hour professional counseling on the suicide prevention counseling call ☎109.