South Korea's teen suicide rate rose to a record 8.6 deaths per 100,000 in 2025 as the national rate fell, exceeding the baseline for the government's youth prevention targets.
The Ministry of Data and Statistics reported 14,144 suicide deaths nationwide, 728 fewer than in 2024. The overall rate dropped 4.7% to 27.8 per 100,000, following increases in 2023 and 2024. For people ages 10 to 19, the rate climbed 7.5% from 8.0 to 8.6 per 100,000, the highest since records began in 1983. Rates fell in every other age group.
The teen figure measures deaths relative to the population ages 10 to 19; it is not a count of school students who died. The national and teen rates moved in opposite directions, but the statistics do not identify a cause for the difference.
A 2024 study examined 36 adolescents who died by suicide between August 2015 and July 2021. Bereaved families reported warning signs in 29 cases, and 17 adolescents had undergone psychiatric intervention at some point. Because the study drew on a small group and interviews conducted after the deaths, its findings cannot be applied to teenagers as a whole or used to explain the 2025 increase.
In June 2026, the government announced a plan involving 15 ministries to reduce the youth rate to 6.5 per 100,000 by 2030 and 4.2 by 2035. It used the 2024 rate of 8.0 as its starting point. The plan addresses academic and career pressure, conflict at home and school, and harmful online information as prevention priorities; it does not establish that any one of them caused the latest rise.
In a separate Dec. 2025 plan, the Education Ministry said it would increase emergency mental health teams serving schools from 56 to 100 by 2030. It also said it would extend student voucher coverage to counseling at outside specialist institutions in 2026. A government policy summary listed 10 billion won for treatment and counseling in 2026, compared with 8 billion won for treatment in 2025.
The government's next stated rate milestone is its 2030 target of 6.5 youth deaths per 100,000.
