Cause-specific death rates for leading causes of death (2003–2013) and age-standardised (with the 2005 Korean census and world standard populations as references) mortality rates (per 100 000 person-years) in the National Health Insurance Service-National Health Screening Cohort database
| Rank | All | Men | Women | |||||||||
| Cause of death | Crude rates | Age-standardised rates | Cause of death | Crude rates | Age-standardised rates | Cause of death | Crude rates | Age-standardised rates | ||||
| Census | WHO | Census | WHO | Census | WHO | |||||||
| 1 | Malignant neoplasms | 269.5 | 239.5 | 264.4 | Malignant neoplasms | 365.8 | 364.1 | 406.6 | Malignant neoplasms | 157.6 | 128.3 | 140.5 |
| 2 | Cerebrovascular diseases | 68.8 | 66.9 | 76.5 | Heart diseases | 71.7 | 79.2 | 91.0 | Cerebrovascular diseases | 63.5 | 55.4 | 64.5 |
| 3 | Heart diseases | 59.7 | 60.8 | 70.8 | Cerebrovascular diseases | 73.3 | 78.9 | 89.0 | Heart diseases | 45.7 | 42.0 | 50.8 |
| 4 | Suicide | 32.1 | 30.0 | 31.6 | Suicide | 44.3 | 43.3 | 45.6 | Diabetes mellitus | 22.8 | 20.0 | 23.5 |
| 5 | Diabetes mellitus | 25.6 | 24.5 | 28.1 | Chronic lower respiratory infections | 26.8 | 32.2 | 38.1 | Suicide | 18.0 | 15.8 | 16.9 |
| 6 | Transport accidents | 23.8 | 21.6 | 22.6 | Transport accidents | 33.2 | 31.3 | 32.6 | Transport accidents | 12.8 | 11.2 | 12.0 |
| 7 | Chronic lower respiratory infections | 19.0 | 19.8 | 23.7 | Pneumonia | 19.7 | 30.8 | 39.7 | Pneumonia | 9.8 | 11.1 | 14.5 |
| 8 | Pneumonia | 15.1 | 19.5 | 25.1 | Diabetes mellitus | 28.1 | 28.9 | 32.3 | Hypertensive diseases | 11.2 | 9.9 | 11.8 |
| 9 | Diseases of liver | 18.0 | 15.6 | 16.3 | Diseases of liver | 28.2 | 25.1 | 26.0 | Chronic lower respiratory infections | 10.0 | 9.8 | 12.3 |
| 10 | Hypertensive diseases | 10.0 | 11.0 | 13.5 | Hypertensive diseases | 8.9 | 12.5 | 15.8 | Alzheimer’s disease | 4.6 | 7.0 | 9.9 |
The cause of death was classified using the selection list of 56 causes of death provided by Statistics Korea, which originated from the list of 80 causes of death for the tabulation of mortality statistics recommended by WHO.