[Graphic News] Cancer, heart disease among major causes of death in 2022

Cancer and heart diseases were among the major causes of death for South Koreans in 2022, data showed, with the total number of deaths hitting a new record.

Last year, the total number of deaths reported in the country came to 372,939, up 17.4 percent from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea. It was the highest figure since the agency began compiling such data in 1983.

The agency said 727.6 deaths were reported per 100,000 South Koreans last year.

Cancer was the major cause of death, taking up 83,378, or 22.4 percent, followed by heart disease with 33,715, or 9 percent. The data also showed that COVID-19 took up 8.4 percent of the total deaths.

Suicide, meanwhile, was the sixth-largest cause of death for South Koreans in 2022. A total of 12,906 people took their own lives in 2022, down 3.3 percent from a year earlier. (Yonhap)