Cancer, heart disease, pneumonia among major causes of death in 2024

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Published: 25 Sep. 2025, 16:27

An ambulance at a hospital in Daejeon on April 17 [JOONGANG ILBO]

Cancer, heart disease and pneumonia were among the key causes of death for Koreans in 2024, data showed Thursday, with suicide remaining the top factor among those in their 40s and younger.

Last year, the total number of deaths reported in the country came to 358,569, up 1.7 percent from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea.

The agency said 702.6 deaths were reported per 100,000 Koreans last year, also up 1.9 percent from a year earlier.

The report showed that cancer accounted for 24.8 percent of total deaths in 2024, followed by heart disease at 9.4 percent and pneumonia at 8.4 percent. The three factors were responsible for more than 42 percent of total deaths.

Suicide, meanwhile, stood as the fifth-biggest cause of death for Koreans at 4.1 percent.

A total of 14,872 people took their own lives last year, up 6.3 percent from a year earlier.

It remained the main cause of death for people aged between 10 and 49 in Korea in 2024, and the second-biggest cause of death for those in their 50s.

Korea currently holds the highest suicide rate among the member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which stood at 26.2 for every 100,000 people in 2024, far higher than the OECD average of 10.8.

Yonhap