아시아 10/06/03 Korea logs world’s highest suicide rate - By Paul Hwang, Seoul

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Korea logs world’s highest suicide rate

Published Date: June 3, 2010

By Paul Hwang, Seoul

 

A poster highlighting the value of life (Photo courtesy of Korean Association for Suicide Prevention)

South Korea has the highest suicide rate in the world, according to a Korean National Police Agency report released yesterday.

The number of suicides in 2009 was 14,579, a rise of 18.8 from 12,270 in 2008, says the report.

This means the suicide rate in 2009 was 29.9 for every 100,000 persons. The total population in South Korea is 48,746,693.

The figures are even higher than those released recently in the OECD Factbook 2010.

That data showed 21.5 suicides out of every 100,000 persons, making the suicide rate the highest out of the 31 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries.

Japan came close at 19.1 suicides per 100,000 people.

According to the police report, the most frequent cause of suicide was “psychological/psychiatric” problems, at 28.28 percent, followed by “physical/disease” problems at 21.88 percent and economic problems at 16.17 percent.

People older than 61 were the most vulnerable to suicide, at 31.65, followed by those in the 41-50 age group at 19.0 percent.

Those in the 31-40 age group made up 17.2 percent of suicides while those in the 51-60 age group made up 16.65 percent.