Suicide was the No. 1 cause of death for younger people in 2012, with more youths thinking about taking their own lives due to stress from study and economic difficulties, a government report showed Monday.

According to Statistics Korea, suicide was the leading cause of death among those between the ages of 9 and 24 in 2012, marking the sixth straight such year since 2007.

The death rate per 100,000 people by suicide stood at the highest level of 8, followed by traffic accidents and cancer, with death rates of 4.9 and 3.4, the report showed.

The report also said that more than one out of 10 younger people have thought about suicide.

In a survey of those between the ages of 13 and 24, the report showed that 11.2 percent said that they have thought about committing suicide, the highest since 2006, when related data began to be published. It was also higher than the 8.8 percent tallied two years ago.

Major reasons behind younger people thinking about suicide were study-related stress and economic difficulties, with 28 percent and 20.5 percent, respectively, the report showed. (Yonhap)