South Korea had the 8th highest suicide rate in the world in 2021, and the highest among OECD countries. The elderly in South Korea are at the highest risk of suicide, but deaths from teen suicide have been rising since 2010, and in 2025, suicide became the leading cause of death for South Koreans aged in their 40s, surpassing deaths from cancer. In 2022, suicide caused more than half of all deaths among South Koreans in their twenties. It is the leading cause of death for those between the age of 10 and 39.
Relative poverty among senior citizens in South Korea, although declining since 2011, has contributed to their high rate of suicide. Because of a poorly-funded social safety net for the elderly, many choose to take their own life so as not to be a financial burden to their families. The social tradition of children looking after their parents in old age has largely disappeared in 21st century South Korea. Rural residents tend to have higher suicide rates due to self-reported high rates of elderly discrimination. For example, 85.7% of people in their 50s reported experiencing ageism, especially when applying for jobs. Poverty, age discrimination, and suicide often occur together.
In 2011 the South Korean government enacted the suicide prevention act, which created a network of government funded suicide prevention and mental health welfare centers across the country. They had an effect of decreasing suicide rates when the number of suicides per 100,000 people declined by 4.1% from 28.5 in 2013 to 27.3 in 2014, the lowest in six years since 2008's 26.0 people.
A 2024 Time magazine investigation reported that South Korea's suicide prevention and mental health welfare centers receive insufficient government funding, data, and support. Senior officials from six local centers alleged that the central government withholds suicide-related data from them "to shield districts, cities, and provinces with high rates of suicide from reputational damage," obstructing their efforts "to enact policies that would meet the needs of their communities and, ultimately, save lives."
Statistics
Age An extremely high suicide rate among the elderly is a major contributing factor to South Korea's overall suicide rate. As people age, certain sociopsychological factors such as income decline due to retirement, increased medical costs, physical deterioration or disabilities, loss of spouse or friends and no sense of purpose increases the risk of suicide. Many impoverished elderly people choose to die by suicide as to not be a burden on their families, since the South Korean welfare system is poorly funded and the tradition of children caring for their parents in old age has largely disappeared in the 21st century. As a result, people living in rural areas have higher suicide rates.
Although lower than the rate for the elderly, grade school and college students in Korea have a higher than average suicide rate.
Over a 5 year period, the number of suicide or self-inflicted injuries has increased from 4,947 in 2015 to 9,828 in 2019, and most cases involved people aged between 9 and 24. Kang Byung-won, a Parliament member from the Democratic party announced that "26.9 young South Koreans either attempt suicide or suffer self-inflicted injuries per day."
Gender 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.Hur, Ji-Won, Bun-Hee Lee, Sung-Woo Lee, Se-Hoon Shim, Sang-Woo Han, and Yong-Ku Kim. "Gender Differences in Suicidal Behavior in Korea." Psychiatry Investigation, 2008, 28. One study has translated this to the fact that women attempt to die by suicide more as a demonstration, while men die by suicide with a determined purpose.Cheong, Kyu-Seok, Min-Hyeok Choi, Byung-Mann Cho, Tae-Ho Yoon, Chang-Hun Kim, Yu-Mi Kim, and In-Kyung Hwang. "Suicide Rate Differences by Sex, Age, and Urbanicity, and Related Regional Factors in Korea." Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, 2012, 70.
While male adolescents generally have higher suicide rates than females, South Korea is an outlier where the female adolescent suicide rate is relatively high compared to other developed countries.
Marital status Studies suggest that suicide rates are different between marital statuses. Individuals who were never married or had a change in their marital status due to divorce, death or separation are at a higher risk of suicide than married individuals. Divorced individuals are the most at-risk group, followed by individuals who have never married and widowed individuals were the lowest at-risk group. Family relationships also contributed to the mental health of men and women. The study of divorce, separated or widowed statuses showed that individuals dissatisfied with family relationships were at a higher risk of depression, thoughts of suicide and low self-esteem.
Roy Baumeister's escape theory is used to further explain the differences in suicide rates between marital statuses. According to Baumeister, the escape theory has six steps, increasing the chance of dying by suicide if the criteria for all six steps are met. Baumeister states that depression alone does not lead to suicide because most depressed individuals do not attempt suicide and not all who have attempted suicide are clinically depressed. According to Baumeister, the model can be viewed as a decision tree: First, the individual has a severe failure or setback that falls below theirs or society's high expectations and standards. Second, the individual starts to make unfavorable self-attributions about themselves causing them to mentally spiral downwards.
Third, the individual will fuel their suicidal ideation by believing the failure or setback is because they are inadequate, unlikable, and guilty and a bad person. Fourth, the individual's negative emotions lead them to believe they fall short of perceived expectations. Fifth, the individual will start to experience cognitive deconstruction by shifting to low levels of thinking and becoming emotionless. Sixth, cognitive deconstruction remove inhibitions making it difficult to recognize the consequences of suicide. Losing a spouse to death, divorce or separation might increase an individual's attempt at suicide.
Socioeconomic status Socioeconomic status is measured by a population's level of education, degree of urbanity and deprivation of the residence.Kim, Myoung-Hee, Kyunghee Jung-Choi, Hee-Jin Jun, and Ichiro Kawachi. "Socioeconomic Inequalities in Suicidal Ideation, Parasuicides, and Completed Suicides in South Korea."Social Science & Medicine 70, no. 8 (2010): 1254-261. Low socioeconomic status, high stress, inadequate sleep, alcohol use, and smoking are associated with suicidal tendencies among adolescents. The economic hardship factor is noted as the most frequently referred cause for elderly suicides. As 71.4% of the elderly population is uneducated and 37.1% of them live in rural areas, they are more likely to face economic hardship, which can lead to health problems and family conflicts. All these factors together lead to an increase in suicidal ideation and completion.
Regions Gangwon has a 37.84% higher suicide rate than the rate for all of South Korea.Park, E, Hyun, Cl Lee, EJ Lee, and SC Hong. "A Study on Regional Differentials in Death Caused by Suicide in South Korea." Europe PubMed Central, 2007. Following Gangwon, Chungnam rates second and Jeonbuk rates third. Ulsan, Gangwon, and Incheon have the highest suicide rate for people above age 65. Daegu has the highest suicide rate for those ages 40 to 59. Gangwon, Jeonnam, and Chungnam have the highest suicide rates for those ages 20 to 39.
Methods
Because South Korean law heavily restricts firearms possession, only one-third of South Korean women use violent methods to die by suicide. Poisoning is the most commonly used method for South Korean women, with pesticides accounting for half of suicide deaths amongst women.Chen, Ying-Yeh, Nam-Soo Park, and Tsung-Hsueh Lu. "Suicide Methods Used by Women in Korea, Sweden, Taiwan and the United States." Journal of the Formosan Medical Association 108, no. 6 (2009): 452-59. 58.3% of suicides from 1996 to 2005 used pesticide poisoning.Lee, Won Jin, Eun Shil Cha, Eun Sook Park, Kyoung Ae Kong, Jun Hyeok Yi, and Mia Son. "Deaths from Pesticide Poisoning in South Korea: Trends over 10 years." International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health 82, no. 3 (2008): 365-71. Another prevalent method by which South Koreans die by suicide is hanging.Kim, Seong Yi, Myoung-Hee Kim, Ichiro Kawachi, and Youngtae Cho. "Comparative Epidemiology of Suicide in South Korea and Japan: Effects of Age, Gender and Suicide Methods." Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention, 2011, 5-14. A study by Jeon et al. has shown a difference between the methods used by suicide attempters who did plan and did not plan their attempts. Unplanned suicide attempters tend to use chemical agents or falling three times as often as planned suicide attempters.Jeon, Hong Jin, Jun-Young Lee, Young Moon Lee, Jin Pyo Hong, Seung-Hee Won, Seong-Jin Cho, Jin-Yeong Kim, Sung Man Chang, Hae Woo Lee, and Maeng Je Cho. "Unplanned versus Planned Suicide Attempters, Precipitants, Methods, and an Association with Mental Disorders in a Korea-based Community Sample." Journal of Affective Disorders 127, no. 1-3 (2010): 274-80.
A study by Subin Park et al. states that a major reason for the general upward trend in the South Korean suicide rate from 2000 to 2011 was the increase in suicides by hanging. Throughout that time period, hanging grew to be perceived as more painless, socially acceptable, and accessible, and became a much more common method throughout the first decade of the 21st century.
Carbon monoxide poisoning In recent years amid the rise of suicide rates, yeontan burning has been used as a method of suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.
Bridge jumping Bridge jumping has also been used as a method of suicide. The Mapo Bridge in Seoul, is considered a suicide bridge, locally known as "Suicide Bridge" and "The Bridge of Death". South Korean authorities have tried to counter this by calling the bridge "The Bridge of Life" and posting reassuring messages on the ledges.
Notable cases
On 22 February 2005, actress Lee Eun-ju, the star of hit films including Taegukgi and The Scarlet Letter, died by suicide at the age of 24. On 21 January 2007, performance artist U;Nee died by hanging at the age of 25.Looi, Elizabeth, "Korean singer found hanged ", Malaysia Star, January 25, 2007. Circa 22 August 2008, actor Ahn Jae-hwan died by carbon monoxide poisoning. On 2 October 2008, "The Nation's Actress" Choi Jin-sil died by suicide at the age of 39. On 6 October 2008, actor and model Kim Ji-hoo died by suicide by hanging following harassment due to being gay. On 7 March 2009, actress Jang Ja-yeon died by suicide at the age of 29. She left a letter alleging violence, abuse, and sexual exploitation by several people in the entertainment industry. On 23 May 2009, former president Roh Moo-hyun leapt to death from a ravine. On 19 November 2009, supermodel Daul Kim died by suicide in Paris at the age of 20.telegraph.co.uk Henry Samuel, Daul Kim found hanged after posting web messages 20 Nov 2009 On 18 October 2014, a 37-year-old government safety official who oversaw organization of the 17 October concert of the K-pop group 4Minute died by suicide, after 16 people had been killed and 11 others were injured by the collapse of a faulty ventilation grate at that concert.