South Korea's Suicide Rate 25.2 per 100,000... Highest Among OECD Member Countries

South Korea's suicide rate was found to be the highest among the member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Additionally, the number of reported sexual violence crimes increased by more than 20%.

On the 25th, Statistics Korea released the "Korea Safety Report 2023," which included these findings. According to the report, the suicide rate in 2022 was recorded at 25.2 per 100,000 people. The age-standardized suicide rate per 100,000 population in 2020 was 24.1. This is more than twice the OECD average of 10.7 and the only member country to exceed 20. It was 5.6 higher than Lithuania, which ranked second with a suicide rate of 18.5.

However, compared to the previous year, it decreased by 0.8 (3.2%). The suicide rate peaked at 28.5 in 2013 and has been gradually declining since. The male suicide rate was 35.3, and the female rate was 15.1, decreasing by 0.6 (1.7%) and 1.1 (6.4%) respectively.

The number of sexual violence crimes reported in 2022 was 41,433, an increase of 25.9% (8,535 cases) from the previous year. The incidence per 100,000 population was 80.5, up by 16.8 (26.4%). Although the number of sexual violence cases began to decline from 2018, it has been rising again since 2021. By type, the cases were ranked as follows: sexual harassment (14,908 cases), obscenity using communication media (10,605 cases), and rape (6,177 cases).

The proportion of elderly living alone rose to 21.1% last year, up 0.2 percentage points from the previous year. Due to aging and the increasing trend of single-person households, South Korea's elderly living alone rate has been rising, from 18.4% in 2013 to 19.3% in 2018. The aging index, which is the ratio of the elderly population (65 and older) to the youth population (0?14 years) per 100 youth, was 167.1, ranking fifth highest among OECD member countries.