Photo : KBS News
The number of people in South Korea who died alone without the presence of their loved ones is on the rise, with men in their 50s and 60s accounting for the biggest portion.
According to a study released by the health ministry on Thursday, three-thousand-559 people died alone in 2022 and three-thousand-661 in 2023, representing a gradual increase from the three-thousand-378 figure reported in 2021.
Eighty-four-point-one percent of people who experienced “lonely deaths” last year were men, while women accounted for 15-point-nine percent of the total.
People in their 60s made up the largest age proportion of the total with one-thousand-146 deaths, followed by those in their 50s with one-thousand-97 deaths, and 502 deaths of people in their 40s. Lonely deaths among men in their 50s and 60s made up more than half of the total.
While suicide accounted for 14-point-one percent of all solitary deaths in 2023, down from 16-point-nine percent in 2021, suicide was the cause of death for 59-point-five and 43-point-four percent of young people in their 20s and 30s, respectively.