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The life expectancy for a Korean is 83.3 years, higher than the average of 81.0 of member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (Getty Images Bank)

The life expectancy for a Korean is 83.3 years, higher than the average of 81.0 of member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The Ministry of Health and Welfare on Monday announced the results of the report "OECD Health Statistics 2021," which analyzed major health and welfare indexes of the country and was released on July 2. The report said life expectancy in Korea in 2019 was 83.3 years, or 2.3 higher than the OECD average and marking a rise of 3.3 from 2009. Japan led the OECD with 84.4, just 1.1 higher than Korea's figure.

Life expectancy is the number of years that a baby born in a given year is expected to live.

Korea led the OECD in the suicide rate, with 24.7 people out of 100,000 taking their own lives. The figure had fallen from 33.8 in 2009 to 23.0 in 2017 but rose again in 2018. An average of 37.6 men and 13.7 women in Korea died by suicide, with the average OECD rate being just 11.0.

Korea in 2019 also had the third-lowest number of medical doctors, including those in traditional Korean medicine, in the OECD with 2.5 per 1,000 people, trailing only Poland and Mexico. Austria had the most with 5.3 and Norway was second with 5.0. Japan (2.5) and the U.S. (2.6) had rates similar to Korea's.

In the number of medical school graduates, including those of traditional Korean medicine and dentistry, Korea also had the third-lowest average of 7.4. Only Japan (7.1) and Israel (7.2) had lower figures, and Korea's average was nearly half of the OECD figure of 13.5.

By Kim Ji-hoon, staff reporter

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