Cause-of-death statistics in the Republic of Korea, 2014

Article information

J Korean Med Assoc. 2016;59(3):221-232

Publication date (electronic) : 2016 March 10

doi : https://doi.org/10.5124/jkma.2016.59.3.221

Hyun-Young Shin, MD ¹, Ji-Youn Lee, PhD ², Juhwa Song, BSc ², Seokmin Lee, BSc ², Junghun Lee, BSc ², Byeongsun Lim, MSc ², Heyran Kim, BSc ², Sun Huh, MD^,³

¹Department of Family Medicine, Myongji Hospital, Seonam University College of Medicine, Goyang, Korea

²Vital Statistics Division, Statistics Korea, Deajeon, Korea

³Department of Parasitology and Institute of Medical Education, College of Medicine, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea

Corresponding author: Sun Huh E-mail: shuh@hallym.ac.kr

Received 2016 February 09; Accepted 2016 February 21.

Abstract

This article presents recent trends and statistical indicators related to mortality in the Republic of Korea by analyzing the 2014 cause-of-death statistics. Specifically, we assessed the number of deaths, the crude death rate, the ranking of causes of death, and trends in the death rate from the major causes of death. Causes of death were classified according to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th revision, as recommended by the World Health Organization. In order to determine the ranking of causes of death, Statistics Korea used the selection list of 56 causes of death from the 80 causes of death list for tabulation mortality statistics recommended by World Health Organization to better fit the Korean situation. The 10 leading causes of death were, in order, cancer, heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, suicide, pneumonia, diabetes mellitus, chronic lower respiratory disease, liver disease, transport accidents, and hypertensive diseases. The top 10 causes of death accounted for 70.5% of all Korean deaths. The ranking of cancer types as causes of death was lung, liver, stomach, colon, and pancreatic cancer. Death rates for heart disease increased from the third in 2013 to the second leading cause in 2014 and the rank of pneumonia moved up from the sixth in 2013 to the fifth in 2014. The mortality rate due to stomach cancer has decreased continuously over time. This finding may reflect changes in Korean society involving population structure, epidemiological patterns, and lifestyles, including dietary habits.

Keywords: Neoplasms; Cardiovascular diseases; Cause of death; Heart diseases; Korea

Figure 1.

Trends in the number of deaths and crude death rate from 1994 to 2014 based on annual cause-of-death statistics for the Korean population.

Figure 2.

Leading causes of death by sex in 2014 based on annual cause-of-death statistics for the Korean population.

Figure 3.

Trends in the death rate due to the five leading cancers from 2000 to 2014 based on annual cause-of-death statistics for the Korean population.

Figure 4.

Trends in the death rate due to cancers by age from 2000 to 2014 based on annual cause-of-death statistics for the Korean population. (A) Malignant neoplasm of stomach, (B) malignant neoplasm of colon, rectum and anus, (C) malignant neoplasm of liver and intrahepatic bile ducts, (D) malignant neoplasm of trachea, bronchus and lung, (E) malignant neoplasm of breast, (F) malignant neoplasm of cervix uteri, and (G) malignant neoplasm of prostate.

Table 1.

Trends of number of deaths and crude death rates of Korean people from 1990 to 2014

Table 2.

Trends of number of deaths of Korean people by sex and age in 2004, 2013, and 2014

Table 3.

Trends of death rates of Korean people by sex and age in 2004, 2013, and 2014

Table 4.

Trends of leading causes of death of Korean people in 2004, 2013, and 2014

Table 5.

Percentage and death rate of Korean people due to three leading causes by age in 2014

Table 6.

Trends of death rate of Korean people due to cancer by sex in 2004, 2013, and 2014

Table 7.

Trends of death rate of Korean people due to cancer by sex in 2004, 2013, and 2014

Table 8.

Trends of death rate of Korean people due to disease of the circulatory system by sex in 2004, 2013, and 2014

Table 9.

Trends of death rate of Korean people due to diseases of the circulatory system by age in 2013 and 2014

References

1. Statistics Korea. Annual report on the causes of death statistics [Internet] Daejeon: Statistics Korea; 2015. [cited 2016 Feb 9]. Available from: http://kostat.go.kr/portal/korea/kor_nw/2/6/2/index.board.

2. World Health Organization. International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th revision 2016 [Internet] Geneva: World Health Organization; 2016. [cited 2016 Feb 9]. Available from: http://apps.who.int/classifications/icd10/browse/2016/en.

3. Statistics Korea. Korean Standard Classification of Diseases and Causes of Death (KCD-6) [Internet] Daejeon: Statistics Korea; 2011. [cited 2016 Feb 9]. Available from: https://kssc.kostat.go.kr:8443/ksscNew_web/ekssc/main/main.do.

4. Jeon JY, Ko SH, Kwon HS, Kim NH, Kim JH, Kim CS, Song KH, Won JC, Lim S, Choi SH, Jang MJ, Kim Y, Oh K, Kim DJ, Cha BY. Taskforce Team of Diabetes Fact Sheet of the Korean Diabetes Association. Prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes according to fasting plasma glucose and HbA1c. Diabetes Metab J 2013;37:349–357.

5. Jung KW, Won YJ, Kong HJ, Oh CM, Cho H, Lee DH, Lee KH. Cancer statistics in Korea: incidence, mortality, survival, and prevalence in 2012. Cancer Res Treat 2015;47:127–141.

Article information Continued

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Figure 1.

Trends in the number of deaths and crude death rate from 1994 to 2014 based on annual cause-of-death statistics for the Korean population.

Figure 2.

Leading causes of death by sex in 2014 based on annual cause-of-death statistics for the Korean population.

Figure 3.

Trends in the death rate due to the five leading cancers from 2000 to 2014 based on annual cause-of-death statistics for the Korean population.

Figure 4.

Table 1.

Trends of number of deaths and crude death rates of Korean people from 1990 to 2014

Year	No. of deaths			Crude death rate			Sex ratio (male/ female)	Average daily no. of deaths
Year	Total	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Sex ratio (male/ female)	Average daily no. of deaths
1990	241,616	138,730	102,886	563.6	643.2	483.0	1.33	662
1991	242,270	138,270	104,000	559.6	634.7	483.5	1.31	664
1992	236,162	134,231	101,931	539.8	609.8	469.0	1.30	645
2000	246,163	136,486	109,677	517.9	571.9	463.3	1.23	673
2001	241,521	134,058	107,463	504.5	557.8	450.7	1.24	662
2002	245,317	134,742	110,575	509.7	557.9	461.2	1.21	672
2003	244,506	134,887	109,619	506.1	556.6	455.4	1.22	670
2004	244,217	135,218	108,999	503.7	556.1	451.0	1.23	667
2005	243,883	134,382	109,501	501.0	550.5	451.1	1.22	668
2006	242,266	133,725	108,541	495.6	545.7	445.2	1.23	664
2007	244,874	134,922	109,952	498.4	547.9	448.7	1.22	671
2008	246,113	136,932	109,181	498.2	553.1	443.0	1.25	672
2009	246,942	137,736	109,206	497.3	553.7	440.7	1.26	677
2010	255,405	142,358	113,047	512.0	570.0	454.0	1.26	700
2011	257,396	143,250	114,146	513.6	571.1	456.0	1.25	705
2012	267,221	147,372	119,849	530.8	585.1	476.4	1.23	730
2013	266,257	146,599	119,658	526.6	579.8	473.4	1.22	729
2014	267,692	147,321	120,371	527.3	580.6	474.1	1.22	733
From Change 2013	1,435	722	713	0.7	0.8	0.7
Percentage change	0.5	0.5	0.6	0.1	0.1	0.1

Unit: person, per 100,000 population, person, %

Table 2.

Trends of number of deaths of Korean people by sex and age in 2004, 2013, and 2014

			Age (yr)
			Total	0	1–9	10–19	20–29	30–39	40–49	50–59	60–69	70–79	80≤
Total	2004		244,217	2,228	1,375	1,526	3,961	8,613	20,649	26,080	47,578	61,943	70,255
	2013		266,257	1,305	595	1,084	2,782	6,273	15,270	29,754	35,696	74,130	99,332
	2014		267,692	1,305	493	1,109	2,580	5,940	14,611	29,795	35,409	72,660	103,748
	From 2013	Change	1,435	0	–102	25	–202	–333	–659	41	–287	–1,470	4,416
		Percentage change	0.5	0.0	–17.1	2.3	–7.3	–5.3	–4.3	0.1	–0.8	–2.0	4.4
	2004		135,218	1,221	814	1,021	2,667	5,927	15,319	19,510	32,470	32,273	23,994
	2013		146,599	698	352	733	1,850	4,083	10,833	22,068	25,329	44,484	36,159
	2014		147,321	715	266	714	1,735	3,843	10,278	22,123	25,324	44,135	38,167
	From 2013	Change	722	17	–86	–19	–115	–240	–555	55	–5	–349	2,008
		Percentage change	0.5	2.4	–24.4	–2.6	–6.2	–5.9	–5.1	0.2	–0.0	–0.8	5.6
Male	2004		108,999	1,007	561	505	1,294	2,686	5,330	6,570	15,108	29,670	46,261
	2013		119,658	607	243	351	932	2,190	4,437	7,686	10,367	29,646	63,173
	2014		120,371	590	227	395	845	2,097	4,333	7,672	10,085	28,525	65,581
	From 2013	Change	713	–17	–16	44	–87	–93	–104	–14	–282	–1,121	2,408
		Percentage change	0.6	–2.8	–6.6	12.5	–9.3	–4.2	–2.3	–0.2	–2.7	–3.8	3.8
Sex ratio (male/ female)	2004		1.24	1.21	1.45	2.02	2.06	2.21	2.87	2.97	2.15	1.09	0.52
	2013		1.23	1.15	1.45	2.09	1.98	1.86	2.44	2.87	2.44	1.50	0.57
	2014		1.22	1.21	1.17	1.81	2.05	1.83	2.37	2.88	2.51	1.55	0.58

Unit: person

Table 3.

Trends of death rates of Korean people by sex and age in 2004, 2013, and 2014

			Age (yr)
			Total	0	1–9	10–19	20–29	30–39	40–49	50–59	60–69	70–79	80≤
Total	2004		503.7	484.1	24.4	23.1	50.3	96.8	252.1	545.0	1,306.8	3,506.6	11,199.5
	2013		526.6	294.6	14.2	17.1	42.3	78.2	174.4	382.1	821.8	2,475.5	8,902.6
	2014		527.3	310.2	11.8	18.2	39.2	75.7	165.8	372.4	781.7	2,358.0	8,597.5
	From 2013	Change	0.7	15.6	–2.4	1.1	–3.1	–2.5	–8.6	–9.7	–40.2	–117.5	–305.1
		Percentage change	0.1	5.3	–16.8	6.1	–7.4	–3.2	–4.9	–2.5	–4.9	–4.7	–3.4
Male	2004		556.1	510.2	27.6	29.3	66.1	130.6	367.3	817.1	1,945.3	4,912.6	13,134.3
	2013		579.8	306.9	16.2	22.1	53.8	99.9	243.3	564.5	1,209.1	3,534.4	11,044.8
	2014		580.6	331.4	12.3	22.4	50.2	96.1	229.7	550.2	1,154.1	3,380.9	10,608.0
	From 2013	Change	0.8	24.5	–3.9	0.3	–3.6	–3.9	–13.6	–14.3	–55.0	–153.5	–436.8
		Percentage change	0.1	8.0	–24.0	1.4	–6.7	–3.9	–5.6	–2.5	–4.6	–4.3	–4.0
Female	2004		451.0	455.9	21.0	16.1	33.7	61.6	132.6	274.0	766.2	2,674.1	10,404.6
	2013		473.4	281.7	11.9	11.7	29.7	55.7	103.1	198.2	461.1	1,707.8	8,013.0
	2014		474.1	287.9	11.2	13.6	27.0	54.5	99.9	192.8	431.8	1,606.1	7,743.3
	From 2013	Change	0.7	6.3	–0.8	1.9	–2.7	–1.2	–3.2	–5.5	–29.3	–101.6	–269.6
		Percentage change	0.1	2.2	–6.4	16.4	–9.1	–2.1	–3.1	–2.8	–6.3	–6.0	–3.4
Sex ratio (male/ female)	2004		1.23	1.12	1.32	1.81	1.96	2.12	2.77	2.98	2.54	1.84	1.26
	2013		1.22	1.09	1.36	1.89	1.81	1.79	2.36	2.85	2.62	2.07	1.38
	2014		1.22	1.15	1.10	1.64	1.86	1.76	2.30	2.85	2.67	2.10	1.37

Unit: per 100,000 population, %

Table 4.

Trends of leading causes of death of Korean people in 2004, 2013, and 2014

Rank	2004		2013		2014
Rank	Causes of death	Death rate	Causes of death	Death rate	Causes of death	No. of death	Percentage	Death rate
1	Malignant neoplasms	132.6	Malignant neoplasms	149.0	Malignant neoplasms	76,611	28.6	150.9
2	Cerebrovascular disease	70.1	Cerebrovascular disease	50.3	Heart disease	26,588	9.9	52.4
3	Heart disease	36.7	Heart disease	50.2	Cerebrovascular disease	24,486	9.1	48.2
4	Diabetes mellitus	24.2	Suicides	28.5	Suicides	13,836	5.2	27.3
5	Suicides	23.7	Diabetes mellitus	21.5	Pneumonia	12,021	4.5	23.7
6	Liver disease	19.0	Pneumonia	21.4	Diabetes mellitus	10,526	3.9	20.7
7	Chronic lower respiratory disease	17.3	Chronic lower respiratory disease	14.0	Chronic lower respiratory disease	7,171	2.7	14.1
8	Transfer accidents	17.1	Liver disease	13.2	Liver disease	6,635	2.5	13.1
9	Hypertensive disease	10.4	Transfer accidents	11.9	Transfer accidents	5,700	2.1	11.2
10	Pneumonia	7.1	Hypertensive disease	9.4	Hypertensive disease	5,061	1.9	10.0

Unit: per 100,000 population, person, %

Table 5.

Percentage and death rate of Korean people due to three leading causes by age in 2014

Age (yr)	1st			2nd			3rd
Age (yr)	Cause of death	Percentage	Death rate	Cause of death	Percentage	Death rate	No. of death	Percentage	Death rate
1–9	Malignant neoplasms	17.8	2.1	Transfer accidents	10.5	1.2	Congenital deformity	9.5	1.1
10–19	Transfer accidents	26.2	4.8	Suicides	24.7	4.5	Malignant neoplasms	14.3	2.6
20–29	Suicides	45.5	17.8	Transfer accidents	15.4	6.0	Malignant neoplasms	10.6	4.1
30–39	Suicides	36.9	27.9	Malignant neoplasms	19.5	14.7	Transfer accidents	7.8	5.9
40–49	Malignant neoplasms	29.3	48.6	Suicides	19.5	32.4	Liver disease	7.9	13.2
50–59	Malignant neoplasms	38.8	144.6	Suicides	9.8	36.4	Heart disease	7.9	29.3
60–69	Malignant neoplasms	44.1	344.4	Heart disease	8.6	67.1	Cerebrovascular disease	7.7	59.8
70–79	Malignant neoplasms	35.1	827.1	Cerebrovascular disease	10.5	248.5	Heart disease	9.9	234.6
80≤	Malignant neoplasms	17.3	1490.8	Heart disease	11.9	1027.2	Cerebrovascular disease	10.8	925.1

Unit: %, per 100,000 population

Table 6.

Trends of death rate of Korean people due to cancer by sex in 2004, 2013, and 2014

			Malignant neoplasm	Esophagus	Stomach	Colon, rectum and anus	Liver and intrahepatic bile ducts	Pancreas	Trachea, bronchus and lung	Breast	Cervix uteri	Prostate	Meninges, brain and central nervous system	Leukaemia
Total	2004		132.6	3.1	23.1	12.1	22.4	6.3	27.3	3.1	2.2	1.9	2.3	3.0
	2013		149.0	2.9	18.2	16.4	22.6	9.6	34.0	4.4	1.8	3.2	2.4	3.2
	2014		150.9	3.0	17.6	16.5	22.8	10.1	34.4	4.5	1.9	3.3	2.5	3.3
	From 2013	Change	1.9	0.2	–0.6	0.2	0.2	0.5	0.4	0.0	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.1
	From 2013	Percentage change	1.3	5.9	–3.3	1.1	1.0	5.5	1.1	0.8	7.2	1.9	7.0	4.5
Male	2004		168.7	5.6	29.9	13.3	33.7	7.2	40.4	0.1	–	3.8	2.4	3.5
	2013		186.2	5.2	23.7	18.5	33.3	10.3	49.5	0.1	–	6.4	2.5	3.7
	2014		188.7	5.5	22.7	18.9	34.0	10.8	50.4	0.1	–	6.6	2.8	3.6
	From 2013	Change	2.4	0.3	–1.0	0.3	0.6	0.5	0.9	0.0	–	0.1	0.3	–0.1
	From 2013	Percentage change	1.3	6.2	–4.2	1.9	1.9	4.9	1.8	30.3	–	2.0	14.1	–2.9
Female	2004		96.4	0.5	16.2	10.8	11.0	5.4	14.2	6.1	4.5	–	2.2	2.6
	2013		111.8	0.5	12.6	14.2	11.8	8.8	18.4	8.8	3.5	–	2.3	2.6
	2014		113.2	0.5	12.4	14.2	11.6	9.3	18.3	8.9	3.8	–	2.2	3.0
	From 2013	Change	1.4	0.0	–0.2	0.0	–0.2	0.5	–0.1	0.1	0.3	–	–0.0	0.4
	From 2013	Percentage change	1.3	3.4	–1.5	0.2	–1.6	6.2	–0.5	0.6	7.1	–	–0.8	15.2
Sex ratio (male/ female)	2004		1.75	10.27	1.85	1.23	3.06	1.34	2.85	0.01	–	–	1.11	1.37
	2013		1.67	10.31	1.88	1.31	2.82	1.18	2.69	0.01	–	–	1.09	1.46
	2014		1.67	10.58	1.83	1.33	2.92	1.16	2.75	0.01	–	–	1.26	1.23

unit: per 100,000 population, %

Table 7.

Trends of death rate of Korean people due to cancer by sex in 2004, 2013, and 2014

Age (yr)	2013	2014	Malignant neoplasm
Age (yr)	2013	2014	Esophagus	Stomach	Colon, rectum and anus	Liver and intrahepatic bile ducts	Pancreas	Trachea, bronchus and lung	Breast	Cervix uteri	Prostate	Meninges, brain and central nervous system	Leukaemia
Total	149.0	150.9	3.0	17.6	16.5	22.8	10.1	34.4	4.5	1.9	3.3	2.5	3.3
0	2.5	2.1	–	–	–	0.5	–	–	–	–	–	0.2	0.2
1–9	2.4	2.1	–	–	–	0.0	–	–	–	–	–	0.7	0.8
10–19	2.7	2.6	–	0.0	–	0.1	–	0.0	0.0	–	–	0.6	0.9
20–29	4.7	4.1	0.0	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	–	0.5	1.1
30–39	15.4	14.7	0.0	2.4	1.1	2.1	0.4	1.2	1.7	0.8	0.0	0.7	1.2
40–49	50.3	48.6	0.6	6.7	4.3	10.4	2.2	4.7	5.8	1.7	0.0	1.7	1.7
50–59	146.3	144.6	3.2	17.2	14.2	33.4	9.4	22.1	9.0	2.5	0.6	3.1	3.2
60–69	361.5	344.4	8.9	34.8	34.1	61.6	24.9	85.1	9.0	3.0	4.3	6.0	6.2
70–79	852.2	827.1	19.6	88.8	89.0	106.8	61.8	227.5	9.7	7.1	21.8	10.2	15.3
80≤	1,477.6	1,490.8	18.0	201.0	206.2	141.9	91.4	355.5	15.5	15.7	61.6	12.3	21.4

Unit: per 100,000 population

Table 8.

Trends of death rate of Korean people due to disease of the circulatory system by sex in 2004, 2013, and 2014

			Disease of the circulatory	Hypertensive disease	Heart disease			Cerebroavascular disease
			Disease of the circulatory	Hypertensive disease	Total	Ischemic heart disease^a)	Other heart disease^b)	Cerebroavascular disease
Total	2004		119.9	10.4	36.7	26.2	10.5	70.1
	2013		113.1	9.4	50.2	26.8	23.3	50.3
	2014		113.9	10.0	52.4	27.9	24.4	48.2
	From 2013	Change	0.8	0.6	2.2	1.1	1.1	–2.1
	From 2013	Percentage change	0.7	6.5	4.4	4.1	4.8	–4.2
Male	2004		114.7	6.9	38.5	27.9	10.6	66.5
	2013		107.2	5.9	49.9	28.3	21.6	47.8
	2014		108.4	6.0	52.3	29.5	22.8	46.6
	From 2013	Change	1.2	0.1	2.4	1.2	1.3	–1.2
	From 2013	Percentage change	1.1	1.0	4.9	4.2	5.8	–2.6
Female	2004		125.1	13.8	34.9	24.5	10.3	73.8
	2013		119.0	12.8	50.4	25.4	25.1	52.8
	2014		119.4	14.0	52.4	26.4	26.0	49.9
	From 2013	Change	0.4	1.2	2.0	1.0	1.0	–3.0
	From 2013	Percentage change	0.3	9.1	3.9	4.0	3.9	–5.6
Sex ratio (male/ female)	2004		0.92	0.50	1.10	1.14	1.02	0.90
	2013		0.90	0.46	0.99	1.11	0.86	0.91
	2014		0.91	0.43	1.00	1.12	0.88	0.93

Unit: per 100,000 population, %

^a)

Myocardial infarction and angina were include in ischemic heart disease;

^b)

Heart failure and endocarditis, etc were included in other heart disease.x

Table 9.

Trends of death rate of Korean people due to diseases of the circulatory system by age in 2013 and 2014

Age (yr)	2013	2014	Hypertensive disease	Heart disease			Cerebroavascular disease
Age (yr)	2013	2014	Hypertensive disease	Total	Ischemic heart disease^a)	Other^b) disease heart	Cerebroavascular disease
Total	113.1	113.9	10.0	52.4	27.9	24.4	48.2
0	5.6	4.0	–	3.6	–	3.6	0.2
1–9	0.7	0.7	–	0.6	–	0.6	0.1
10–19	1.1	0.9	–	0.5	0.0	0.5	0.3
20–29	2.3	2.3	–	1.5	0.3	1.3	0.7
30–39	7.3	7.6	0.2	4.2	2.0	2.2	3.0
40–49	23.4	23.2	0.3	12.2	5.7	6.4	10.1
50–59	55.4	54.4	1.5	29.3	16.4	13.0	22.1
60–69	139.8	137.2	5.3	67.1	38.1	29.0	59.8
70–79		571.2	533.9	33.7	234.6	130.5	104.1
80≤	2,398.7	2,311.1	299.8	1,027.2	534.1	493.1	925.1

Unit: per 100,000 population

^a)

Myocardial infarction and angina were include in ischemic heart disease;

^b)

Heart failure and endocarditis, etc were included in other heart disease.