I tried to figure out possible causes of the grim facts.
Among some seemingly suicide-related sad statistics, I found one statistically meaningful evidence.
It is the "wage dispersion" in the country. Wage dispersion is the ratio of the wages of the 10% best-paid workers to those of the 10% least-paid workers.
As you can see from the figure below, the wage dispersion has been increasing over the 15 years' span from 1994 to 2008.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCWoZibcdzjik44oZox17z30H1CLUVbwDV-obceZ5ncXmdE-6wlMRovYJGShQsdIY_kILeX3OBd_5ZFCz0oGZXLAeg_6mI3g6vEUs1xmNr7uZZhtwkEFx_Q677uWHyOp6I_9dJhkcQ20Y/s900/Wage_Suicide_Trends.png)
It is highly correlated with South Korea's suicide rates. In a simple linear regression, the square of the correlation coefficient between the two variables was 0.8648.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv7bPBDuVfdBV1S6r7xkeZDP-c5pJQufrXrQToJ64Ma8ylaYB5xJ_j561L8VmnjhF4LBnK0bAkYoiUL0eJ5e2qqdCeSyXrgxMmhqROiN_ygloa-l1Hn0nA3PTArBGOKUYKaL63GIkyOw4/s900/Wage_Suicide_Regression.png)
Then, what is causing the ever-increasing wage dispersion in South Korea? I'll find the answer when I'm free of some duties.
Data sources:
Statistics Korea. (2011). Annual Report on the Cause of Death Statistics. [Data from http://j.mp/Cause_of_Death]
OECD. (2011). Divided We Stand: Why Inequality Keeps Rising. Paris, France: OECD Publishing. [Full-text from http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264119536-en]
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