Soaring Suicide Rate of South Korea

Soaring Suicide Rate of South Korea

  • 기자명 Daniel Park
  • 입력 2022.03.21 16:22
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[The Public = Daniel Park] In Korea, an average of 36 people take their own lives every day. As a result, it has not been freed from the stigma of a ‘suicide republic’ for several years. The government is increasing the budget and implementing various policies to lower the suicide rate, but nothing has changed. Every related statistic is always labeled with the tag “above the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average.” In particular, the extreme choice of young people who are responsible for the future of super-aging and low fertility is a serious situation. It is pointed out that the policy and social indifference to extreme choices should be improved, while the related budget should be significantly increased and infrastructure should be built.

Among the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), South Korea's suicide mortality rate is indisputably number one. From 2003 to 2020, except for 2017, the disgrace of having the highest suicide rate in the OECD for 17 years has followed. In 2017, Lithuania, which has a higher suicide rate, lost the top spot when it joined the OECD, but rose to the top spot again the following year. Even with the most recent statistics, South Korea's suicide rate still ranks first.

According to Statistics Korea, the total number of suicide deaths in Korea in 2020 was 13,195, down 4.4% from the previous year. An average of 36.1 people a day ended their lives by suicide. The suicide mortality rate (number of deaths per 100,000 people) was 25.7, also down 4.4% from the previous year.

However, when looking at the age-standardized suicide rate among OECD countries, Korea has 23.5, which is more than double the average of 10.9 in 38 OECD countries. Excluding Korea, Lithuania (21.6) is the only country with a suicide rate of 20 among the countries compared.

A bigger problem is that the suicide rate among young people who are responsible for our economy is increasing. When looking at the suicide rate in 2020 by age, the suicide rate decreased among those in their 40s or older, including those in their 70s (-16.0%), 60s (-10.7%), 50s (-8.4%), and 40s (-5.8%).

On the other hand, suicide rates among those in their thirties and under, such as those in their twenties (12.8%), teens (9.4%), and those in their thirties (0.7%), increased significantly. The suicide rate among those in their 20s increased by 12.8% from 19.2 to 21.7. The number of teenagers also increased by 9.4% from 5.9 to 6.5.

The increase in suicide rates among young people has also changed the overall mortality rate for that age group. While the death rate for all age groups decreased last year, the death rate in their 20s increased by 5.8%. The death rate for women in their 20s increased by 11.1%.

The government is implementing various policies to lower the suicide rate, but to have no effect. Since his inauguration, President Moon Jae-in has launched a strategy to lower the suicide rate. He announced the ‘three major projects to protect the lives of the people’ and established the Suicide Prevention Policy Division within the Ministry of Health and Welfare. In particular, when the 2nd Mental Health Welfare Plan was announced in January 2020, it was decided to strengthen the suicide prevention infrastructure by preemptively discovering high-risk groups of suicide. Through this, the goal was to lower the suicide rate from 26.9 per 100,000 people to 21.5 over the next five years, but the promise failed. It will be a problem in the future. Even presidential candidates who are aiming for the next administration have no strategy to lower the suicide rate.

The budget is also insufficient. For the past four years (2018-2021), the government has organized 109.9 billion won in the ‘Suicide Prevention and Life Respect Culture Project’ and executed 106.8 billion won. However, compared to Japan, which invests more than 700 billion won a year to prevent suicide, the situation is far from sufficient.

The common opinion of experts is that financial resources are essential to support the government's policy to lower the suicide rate. Instead of allocating a show-like budget, it is necessary to establish an infrastructure to lower the suicide rate by organizing a large-scale budget like in Japan.

A liquor tax imposed on alcohol and the use of lottery funds are suggested as alternatives. The amount of liquor tax is 3 trillion won per year. Last year, lottery fund management reached 6.486.4 trillion won. Ho-jung Yun, co-representative of the National Assembly Suicide Prevention Forum said, “Unlike major countries that directly spend the cost of suicide prevention from the national budget, Korea is spending the proportion through the Health Promotion Fund.”

Yang Doo-seok, director of the Ansilyeon Suicide Prevention Center, said, “In other countries, such as Japan and Denmark, where suicide rates have been continuously decreasing, suicide prevention policies have been implemented based on the premise that suicide is not just an individual problem, but also has various social and environmental problems in the background.”

[Image by Yonhap News]

 

The Public / Daniel Park webmaster@thepublic.kr

더퍼블릭 / Daniel Park webmaster@thepublic.kr

저작권자 © 더퍼블릭 무단전재 및 재배포 금지
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