Korea's suicides rose for a third year in 2009, becoming the country's fourth leading cause of death after cancer, cerebral disease and heart-related illnesses, a government report showed Sunday.
The report, submitted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare to lawmakers ahead of this week's parliamentary audit, showed suicides accounting for 31 deaths out of every 100,000 people living in the country.
Suicide has been on the rise in the country, reaching 26.1 deaths per 100,000 people in 2005. It fell to 23 deaths per year in 2006, but started to rise again from the following year to reach 26 deaths per 100,000 people in 2008.
According to the report, cancer, which had been the single largest killer of people since 2002, accounted for 140.5 deaths out of 100,000 people counted last year.
Cerebral and heart disease killed 52 people and 45 people per year, respectively, with diabetes ranking fifth by causing 19.6 deaths during the year for every 100,000 people.
The report, meanwhile, showed heart-related deaths increasing in 2009 compared to the year before, while deaths caused by cerebral disease and diabetes going down.
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