Suicide leads causes of death among teens to 40s, cancer from 50s

The number of deaths in Korea last year reached the second-highest level on record, while suicide was the leading cause of death among people in their teens through their 40s, according to data released by the Ministry of Data and Statistics on Tuesday.

Although both the number of suicides and the suicide rate declined from the previous year, teenagers stood out as an exception, with their suicide rate climbing to an all-time high.

Meanwhile, cancer emerged as the leading cause of death starting among people in their 50s, highlighting a sharp divide in mortality patterns across age groups.

According to the data, suicide accounted for more than half of all deaths among Koreans in their teens and 20s in 2025, underscoring its disproportionate impact on younger generations.

The share stood at 51.2 percent for teenagers and rose to 53.5 percent for those in their 20s. It then fell to 42.3 percent among people in their 30s and 25.4 percent among those in their 40s.

The suicide death rate, meanwhile, increased progressively across these age groups. It stood at 8.6 per 100,000 among teenagers, rising to 20.8 among people in their 20s, 28.2 among those in their 30s and 34.3 among those in their 40s.

The pattern shifted among people in their 50s, with cancer overtaking suicide as the leading cause of death. Cancer accounted for 33.7 percent of deaths in the age group, with a mortality rate of 97.2 per 100,000.

Suicide was a distant second at 12.3 percent, or 35.6 deaths per 100,000, followed by heart disease.

Cancer continued to rank first among people in their 60s and 70s. Together with heart disease and cerebrovascular disease, the three major causes accounted for 55.6 percent of deaths among those in their 60s and 51.6 percent among those in their 70s.

The pattern was somewhat different among those aged 80 and older. Although cancer still ranked first, its share narrowed to 16.2 percent, while pneumonia and heart disease accounted for 11.9 percent and 10.3 percent, respectively.

Overall, the suicide rate declined last year despite remaining the leading cause of death among younger Koreans. The number of suicide deaths fell by 728, or 4.9 percent, to 14,144, while the suicide rate dropped 4.7 percent to 27.8 deaths per 100,000 people.

Teenagers were the only age group to move in the opposite direction. Their suicide rate rose 7.5 percent from a year earlier to a record 8.6 per 100,000, an increase of 0.6.

“The annual report on suicide statistics and other data show that psychiatric and family-related problems were among the major factors behind suicides among teenagers,” a ministry official said.

Korea also continued to stand out among advanced economies for its high suicide rate. Its age-standardized suicide rate stood at 24.9 per 100,000 in 2025, the highest among OECD member countries and more than double the OECD average of 10.9.

In broader terms, Korea recorded 362,968 deaths in 2025, an increase of 4,399, or 1.2 percent, from the previous year. The tally was the highest since 2022, when COVID-19 pushed the annual death toll to 372,939, and marked the second-highest figure on record.

The ministry attributed the persistently high number of deaths in part to Korea’s rapidly aging population, even after the COVID-19 pandemic subsided. Those aged 80 and older accounted for 54.7 percent of all deaths last year, with their share expanding by 13.9 percentage points over the past decade.

Looking at the population as a whole, cancer remained the leading cause of death. Cancer deaths topped 90,000 for the first time, reaching 90,203. Heart disease ranked second with 33,784 deaths, followed by pneumonia with 30,965. Combined, the three causes accounted for 42.7 percent of all deaths.

If you or someone you know may be at risk of suicide, contact Korea's Suicide Crisis hotline at 109. For foreign language assistance with emergency services, call the 1330 Korea Travel Hotline, or call Danuri Portal's helpline at 1577-1366 to connect with multilingual counseling and referral services.