SPOTLIGHT 25/03/12 Korean Catholics urged to improve outreach amidst rise in suicides

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Nearly 40 people in South Korea committed suicide each day in 2024, report reveals

A statue of a man comforting a person is placed to dissuade suicides on Mapo Bridge, a common site for suicides, over the Han River in Seoul in this July 14, 2014 file photo.

By UCA News reporter

Published: March 12, 2025 08:43 AM GMT

Updated: March 12, 2025 10:16 AM GMT

The head of a Church-run medical research institute in South Korea has urged other Church organizations to improve outreach efforts to address the country's rising suicide rate, which has reached a 13-year high.

Nearly 40 people (39.5) committed suicide each day in 2024, bringing the total number of recorded deaths for the year to 14,439, the Korea Foundation for Respect for Life and Hope and Statistics Korea said in a preliminary report.

This was the highest number recorded since 2011 when 15,906 people took their own lives.

Father Eunho Park, director of the Catholic Bioethics Research Institute called for the Catholic Church’s pastoral direction to focus more on the outreach ministry to care for those suffering from loneliness and suicidal tendencies.

“I hope that priests and religious will visit marginalized neighbors and that volunteers will also be involved,” Park said.

He said that while South Korea is becoming more affluent, many people are “complaining of spiritual problems.”

He cited the renowned psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Doctor Victor Frankl’s (1905-1997) “existential vacuum” theory as a cause of such problems among the people.

An existential vacuum" describes a state where a person feels a profound lack of meaning in their life, leading to feelings of emptiness, boredom, and apathy.

This situation is often caused due to a loss of traditional values or a sense of purpose in a rapidly changing world.

According to the report, last year’s suicide rate marked a record high of 28.3 individuals per 100,000 people among the country’s registered population marking an 11-year high.

It also also a gender and age-wise breakup on the likeliness to commit suicide.

By gender, men were more than twice as likely to die by suicide as women.

By age, those in their 50s accounted for 21 percent of suicide cases, followed by those in their 40s (19 percent), 60s (16.5 percent), and 30s (13.4 percent).

The report said that the largest year-over-year increase was among those in their 30s, at 11.6 percent.

The statistics will be finalized in September this year.

Meanwhile, the Suicide Prevention Center of Seoul archdiocese’s “One Mind One Body Movement” has launched a suicide prevention fundraising campaign called “Reach Out, Spring, Open Your Heart,” during Lent.

The campaign started on March 5 will run until April 30.

The funds raised will be used for various suicide prevention projects, including suicide prevention education, bereavement care programs, counseling, and support activities.

*This is a translated and edited version of the report that was first published by the Catholic Times of Korea on March 11, 2025.