Seoul’s suicide rate fell for the first time in six years in 2012 but Still Very High

October 8, 2013 Leave a comment

October 7, 2013, 4:09 PM

Suicide Rate Falls in Seoul but Still Very High

By Kwanwoo Jun

KRT_suicide_rates

Seoul’s suicide rate fell for the first time in six years in 2012, mirroring the national trend announced late last month. While it may be too early to celebrate, as both the capital and the country’s rates are among the world’s highest, at least they’re going in the right direction. Seoul’s suicide rate fell to 23.8 people per 100,000 last year from 26.9 in 2011, thanks in large part to a 28% decline in the rate for men and women in their 20s, the city government said Monday in a news release.It attributed the overall falling suicide rate to various antisuicide programs it runs–including expanding counseling services and hotlines aimed at preventing suicides–with an ambitious goal to halve the rate by 2020, but it didn’t provide any reasons for the particularly sharp decline in suicides among younger residents.

“The first fall in six years seems partly attributable to fewer cases of copycat suicides in the country,” an unidentified Seoul city government official told Yonhap news agency. Korea’s media have been taken to task for breathless reporting of celebrity suicides. Most recently, Seoul National Hospital President Ha Kyoo-seob laid out datashowing that the incidence of suicide rises after celebrities take their own lives. This followed the apparent suicide in January of Cho Sung-min, who was most famous for being the husband of actress Choi Sin-sil who took her own life in 2008, a few years after her divorce with Mr. Cho.

South Korea’s suicide rate is the highest in the developed world, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The national rate was 28.1 per 100,000 in 2012, down from 31.7 a year earlier. That’s still more than double the average of 12.5 for OECD members.

And it’s high enough to make suicide the fourth-leading cause of death in the country after cancer, heart disease and stroke.

Filed under Macro Trends

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