Cancer, heart disease top killers in Korea as aging drives medical costs

A survey found that the top 10 causes of death in Korea last year were, in order, cancer, heart disease, pneumonia, cerebrovascular disease, suicide, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, hypertensive diseases, liver disease, and sepsis.

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This was confirmed in the 2025 Chronic Disease Status and Issues report published by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. In 2023, the top 10 causes of death in Korea were cancer, heart disease, pneumonia, cerebrovascular disease, suicide, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, hypertensive diseases, sepsis, and Covid-19. The rankings from first through eighth remained unchanged from the previous year.

In 2024, medical expenditures for circulatory system diseases totaled 14 trillion won ($9.7 billion), exceeding cancer-related medical costs of 10.7 trillion won. Among individual diseases, hypertension accounted for the highest medical spending at 4.5 trillion won, followed by type 2 diabetes at 3.2 trillion won.

The life expectancy of Koreans reached 83.7 years in 2024, an increase of about 7.7 years since 2000. By gender, life expectancy was 80.8 years for men and 86.6 years for women.

In addition, the population aged 65 and older reached 10.514 million in 2025, accounting for 20.3 percent of the total population and surpassing the threshold for a super-aged society. In 2024, average annual medical spending per person aged 65 or older was 5.51 million won, 2.4 times higher than the overall per-capita average of 2.26 million won.