About thousands of men who are single or without a life partner are reported to have experienced the sad reality of dying lonely in South Korea.
Most of them are middle-aged men who died without partners and relatives, as quoted by CNN.
Some of them even died when their bodies could only be found days to weeks after they had breathed their last.
In South Korea, those who die lonely even have their own term so many. The death is given the term 'godoksa' or 'lonely death'.
The South Korean government is also said to have difficulty overcoming this phenomenon because the country's population is more elderly than young people.
The rules in South Korea also recognize lonely death when someone dies of suicide or illness when someone is cut off from their family or relatives.
This fact has become a national concern in South Korea because the number is increasing every year.
A number of causes also vary, including the demographic crisis in the country. Social welfare disparities, poverty, and social isolation are also causes of the phenomenon of thousands of men dying of loneliness.
The number of men who died alone has also increased during the Covid-19 pandemic. Last year, South Korea recorded 3,378 lonely deaths.
This figure is far more than in 2017 which recorded 2,142 deaths, based on reports from South Korean authorities.
The South Korean government is certainly not without efforts to reduce the death rate. They have implemented the government program Prevention of Death of Loneliness in 2021.
However, the number is increasing and middle-aged to elderly men are most at risk of dying of loneliness.
In 2022, the number of men who die lonely is 5.3 times that of women in 2021. This average is higher than last year.
About 60 percent of men aged 50 to 60 years died lonely last year. Only six to eight percent of men aged 20-30 years who die lonely.