In South Korea, lonely deaths are on the rise as isolation takes its toll

Seoul’s loneliness epidemic is eating the city from within. The city glitters, but there’s a reason the locals call South Korea “Hell Joseon”.

Locals contend with crippling debt and pressure-cooker academic and work lives. Loneliness and isolation stem from and compound those problems. It’s a scourge that manifests in different ways across the metropolis’s sprawling cityscape, and a pressing issue the government is keen to address.

According to a 2021 study from the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, about 3.1 per cent of those aged 19 to 39, or around 340,000 people, are considered to be lonely and reclusive.

At the extreme end is godoksa, or lonely death, where someone dies by suicide or illness after living in social isolation.

Lonely deaths in South Korea increased from 3,378 in 2021 to 3,661 in 2023, per the South Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare’s data.

A snow-covered neighbourhood in Seoul last month. The scourge of loneliness manifests in different ways across the sprawling metropolis. Photo: Reuters

The South Korean government plans to spend over US$322 million on measures that attempt to fix loneliness. However, experts said this initiative fails to address the causes of the problem – and might not have the effect the government is hoping to achieve.