Extra! Korea

May 5, 2009

Suicide and traffic accidents are the top two causes of death for young people

Filed under: suicide, traffic accidents, youth — extrakorea @ 6:07 am

For the fifth consecutive year, the biggest cause of death of people in their twenties was suicide, followed by traffic accidents. For people aged ten to nineteen, the biggest killer was traffic accidents, followed by suicide.

The suicide rate among Koreans in their 20s spiked dramatically in 2007 and once again ranked as the top cause of death for that age group, the National Statistical Office said yesterday.

It was the fifth straight year suicide led the list in that demographic.

[ snip ]

The NSO, in the latest demographic survey on the youth population, said that 21 out of every 100,000 people in their 20s killed themselves in 2007. That’s more than twice the rate of the second-biggest cause, traffic accidents, which claimed the lives of 10.4 out of every 100,000 Koreans in their 20s.

[ snip ]

For those aged 10 to 19, suicide was the second-biggest cause of death in 2007. The NSO data showed 4.6 out of 100,000 people in the age bracket killed themselves in 2007, while 5.4 people died in car accidents.

(source)

3 Comments »

  1. [...] culture, education, suicide, youth — extrakorea @ 1:42 am Considering that Korea has had the highest suicide rate in the OECD for people in their 20s for five consecutive years, it’s not surprising to find that Korean children and teenagers [...]

    Pingback by Korean children and teenagers are the unhappiest in the OECD « Extra! Korea — May 10, 2009 @ 1:42 am

  2. [...] As commenter Angus astutely pointed out after my earlier post, these rankings don’t really indicate the people’s quality of life or happiness. Maybe Koreans should be more concerned about the facts that Korean kids are the unhappiest in the OECD or that many, many of them are dying from traffic accidents and suicide. [...]

    Pingback by Korean economy may fall to 16th place this year « Extra! Korea — May 18, 2009 @ 3:52 am

  3. [...] and for five straight years, suicide has been the top killer of Koreans in their 20s.[2], [3] Korean children and teenagers are the unhappiest in the OECD, and if you look at the numbers, [...]

    Pingback by Suicide, the great killer of Koreans « Streetwise in Seoul — May 31, 2009 @ 4:06 am


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