SEOUL, Sept. 25 — Cancer, heart disease and pneumonia were South Korea’s top three causes of death in 2024, statistical office data showed Thursday.
Cancer caused 174.3 deaths per 100,000 South Koreans in 2024, up from 166.7 deaths in the previous year, according to Statistics Korea.
It continued to rank first since relevant data began to be compiled in 1983.
Among the cancer-caused deaths, the death rate from lung cancer marked the highest with 38.0 deaths per 100,000 people, trailed by liver cancer with 20.4, colorectal cancer with 19.0, pancreatic cancer with 16.0, and gastric cancer with 14.1.
The second-highest cause of death was heart conditions, which caused 65.7 deaths per 100,000 people last year, while the third highest was pneumonia with a death rate of 59.0.
On the top 10 list of causes of death were cerebrovascular disease with 48.2 deaths per 100,000 people, Alzheimer’s disease with 23.9, diabetes with 21.7, hypertensive disease with 16.1, liver disease with 15.3 and blood poisoning with 15.1.
Suicide ranked fifth with a death rate of 29.1 deaths per 100,000 people in 2024, up from 27.3 deaths in the previous year.
Suicide was the leading cause of death among those in their 10s, 20s, 30s, and 40s last year.
The number of deaths in the country totaled 358,569 in 2024, up 1.7 percent from a year earlier. (Xinhua)
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