Elderly men most prone to suicide

/ Courtesy of crc health group blog

By Rachel Lee

Korean men in their 80s are more likely to kill themselves than those in other age groups, statistics show.

According to the Korean Institute of Criminology, men aged 80 and over had the highest suicide rate of any age group ― 168.9 deaths per 10,000 in 2013. Men 70-79 and 60-69 recorded 110.4 and 64.6 deaths per 10,000, respectively.

“In other parts of the world, the suicide rate tends to become lower in the 60 and below group, and Korea is completely the other way around,” an institute spokesperson said. “That’s because we are under relatively more financial and societal burdens.”

For women, the highest suicide rate is among those in their 80s and over, reaching 63.9 deaths per 10,000, followed by women in their 70s with 35.4 deaths, according to the data. But the 30-39 group was the third highest, with 20 deaths per 10,000.

The country’s suicide rate remained the highest among OECD countries for 10 consecutive years, from 2002 to 2012, according to OECD data.

In 2013, the Korean rate averaged 29.1 per 10,000, 12.1 times higher than the world average. A total of 4,367 women and 10,060 men killed themselves.

The overall suicide rate for men (39.8 deaths per 10,000) is twice as high as that for women (17.3 deaths).