Suicide in South Korea

Suicide in South Korea is a serious and widespread problem, with the country having the second-highest suicide rate in the world according to the World Health Organization, as well as the highest suicide rate for an OECD member state.

One reason for its high suicide rate compared to other countries in the developed world is a large amount of suicide among the elderly. The prevalence of suicide among elderly South Koreans is due to the amount of widespread poverty among senior citizens in South Korea, with nearly half of the country's elderly population living below the poverty line. Combined with a poorly-funded social safety net for the elderly, this results in them killing themselves not to be a financial burden on their families, since the old social structure where children looked after their parents has largely disappeared in the 21st century. As a result, people living in rural areas tend to have higher suicide rates.

However, proactive government efforts to decrease the rate has shown effectiveness in 2014, when there were 27.3 suicides per 100,000 people, a 4.1% decline from the previous year (28.5 people) and the lowest in 6 years since 2008's 26.0 people.

One of the reasons of South Korea's relatively high suicide rate is due to the elderly's substantially high suicide rate. This is due to poor elderly people killing themselves not to be a burden on their families, since there is a poorly-funded welfare system, and the old social structure where children looked after their parents, has largely disappeared in the 21st century. As a result, people living in rural areas have higher suicide rates.

Although very low compared to other age groups, school students and college students have a higher suicide rate.

On average, men have a suicide rate that is twice as high as women. However, the suicide attempt rate is higher for women than men. According to a study, because men use more severe and lethal suicide methods, men have higher suicidal completion rate than women. The Risk-Rescue Rating Scale (RRRS), which measures the lethality of the suicidal method by gauging the ratio between five risk and five rescue factors, averaged out to be 37.18 for men and 34.00 for women. One study has translated this to the fact that women attempt to commit suicide more as a demonstration, while men commit suicide with a determined purpose.

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