The number of traffic accident deaths involving children in South Korea has fallen sharply in the past decade, but remains slightly higher than the average rate for members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), government data showed Thursday.

According to the data compiled by Statistics Korea, the country averaged 1.3 deaths in traffic accidents out of every 100,000 children aged 14 or below between 2014 and 2016, a sharp fall from the fatality rate of 3.7 posted between 2004 and 2006.

The country's figure was 1.2 in 2015, slightly higher than the average 1.1 deaths among 32 OECD countries that year, according to the data.

Turkey topped the list with a rate of 3.8 in 2015, followed by Latvia with 3.7 and the U.S. with 2.3, the latest data showed.

The rate for all accidental deaths in South Korea for the age group stood at 3.9 in 2016, down from 8.1 in 2006.

Some 72.6 percent of child deaths were caused by traffic accidents, drowning, falls and other accidents in 2016, with deaths involving intent, such as suicides and murders, the cause of the remaining deaths.

In 2015, the country's accidental death rate averaged 2.8, lower than the OECD's average of 3.1, the data showed. (Yonhap)