The number of people dying alone in South Korea has steadily increased over the past five years. 

According to data submitted for a parliamentary audit by the Ministry of Health and Welfare on Friday, over 33-hundred elderly people died while living alone during that time. 

The annual figure steadily increased from 538 in 2014 to 661 in 2015, 750 in 2016 and 835 last year. As of end-June this year, 547 people died such lonely deaths.

Of the so-called solitary deaths, about 21-hundred were men, while over 12-hundred were women.