Cancer, heart disease, pneumonia top South Korea's causes of death in 2025

SEOUL, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Cancer, heart disease and pneumonia were named as South Korea's top causes of death last year, accounting for 42.7 percent of all deaths, statistical ministry data showed Tuesday.

Photo taken on Feb. 22, 2019 shows the buildings shrouded in smog in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo: Xinhua)

Cancer remained the leading cause of death by a wide margin, with its death rate gaining 1.6 percent to 177.1 per 100,000 people in 2025 compared to the previous year, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics.

Lung cancer was the deadliest at 38.9 deaths per 100,000, followed by liver cancer with 20.4, colorectal cancer with 19.1, pancreatic cancer with 17.0 and stomach cancer with 13.7.

The death rates from heart disease and pneumonia stood at 66.3 and 60.8 each last year, trailed by cerebrovascular disease with 48.7, suicide with 27.8, Alzheimer's disease with 26.8, diabetes with 22.4, sepsis with 17.2, hypertensive diseases with 17.0 and liver disease with 14.9.

The total number of deaths reached 362,968 in 2025, up 1.2 percent from a year earlier.

It marked the second-highest on record following 2022, when fatalities peaked due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The number of deaths per 100,000 people rose 1.4 percent over the year to 712.6 last year.

Reflecting the rapidly aging population, those aged 80 and older accounted for 54.7 percent of the total deaths last year, up 13.9 percentage points compared to a decade ago.