According to government data released on Sept. 22, in 2016 suicide was the biggest cause of death in people under the age of 30. This was followed by transport accidents and then cancer.

• What is being done to tackle Korea's suicide problem?
• Jeju, a paradise island of longer life or aging land of dementia?

Overall, the biggest cause of death in those of all ages was cancer. In fact, the rate of people who died from cancer was 153 per 100,000 people. This is an increase of 2.2 percent when compared to last year.

In 2016, 42.5 percent of all deaths were in those aged 80 or over. With this came a rise in the number of people who died from dementia. In fact, the total number of people to die from this disease has risen by 114 percent when compared to ten years ago.

Jeju island has the highest rate of dementia in all of Korea with 12.13% percent of those over the age of 65 suffering from the disease.

Korea itself is aging faster than any other developed country and the number of people over the age of 65 totaled 13.6 percent of its population in 2016.