The number of people age 65 or older who died alone at home reached 58,044 in 2024, the National Police Agency has announced.
It is the first time that the agency has released the total figures on a yearly basis. The data will be used by the government to tackle the issue of how to support people becoming isolated from society.
According to the statistics made available on Friday, out of 204,184 deaths handled by police nationwide in 2024, including suicides, the number of people who were living alone and found dead at home was 76,020, out of which some 76% were those age 65 or older.
By age group, 14,658 solitary deaths occurred among people age 85 or older, followed by 12,567 among those between the ages of 75 and 79 and 11,600 among those between the ages of 70 and 74.
Meanwhile, 780 people in their 20s, 1,013 in their 30s and 62 between the ages of 15 and 19 were found to have died alone.
Nearly 40% of them were found on the day of or the day after the estimated time of death, while roughly 70% were found within a week. However, there were 6,945 cases, or around 10%, in which the deceased wasn't discovered for over a month.
The statistics show that there is a tendency for so-called lonely deaths of people younger than 65 to take longer to be discovered compared with elderly people.
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