One in five South Koreans is now aged 65 or older, the government said Tuesday.
Newsweek contacted the South Korean embassy in Washington D.C. via email for comment outside of office hours.
Why It Matters
The long-expected milestone officially makes the East Asian nation a “super-aged society,” according to the United Nations benchmark, joining neighboring Japan, which passed the 20-percent threshold in 2006 and is likewise grappling with falling birth and marriage rates.
The long-term economic impact, coupled with a plummeting birth rate, have policymakers worried, and an increasingly desperate Seoul has this year announced a wave of regulations, and announced a new ministry to spearhead efforts to address the demographic crisis.
Pastor Choi Il-do (right) greeting an elderly woman at the “Babfor” free-meal service center in Seoul, South Korea. One in five South Koreans is now aged 65 or older, the government said Tuesday. Pastor Choi Il-do (right) greeting an elderly woman at the “Babfor” free-meal service center in Seoul, South Korea. One in five South Koreans is now aged 65 or older, the government said Tuesday. Jung Yeon-Je/AFP via Getty Images
What To Know
The proportion of South Koreans who are 65 or older stands at 10.24 million, local media cited the country’s interior ministry as saying, making up 20 percent of the 51.22 million population and twice as many as in 2008. Among this age grouping, 5.69 million are women and 4.54 million men.
South Jeolla Province, the country’s southernmost region, bears the distinction of the oldest major area, with 27 percent of its population being classified as elderly. Meanwhile, the de facto administrative capital of Sejong in central South Korea is the youngest with just 11.57 percent being elderly.
South Korea’s plummeting birth rate, the world’s lowest with just 0.72 births expected per woman lifetime last year, is likely to accelerate the population imbalance.
South Korean authorities have said some $200 billion was spent between 2006 and 2022 on initiatives to boost births, but these have failed to overcome obstacles such as rising housing prices and changing social attitudes among young people.
Measures recently introduced by the government include making parental leave more flexible for those with a young child, improving access to postpartum care centers, and offering tax breaks for small- and medium-sized enterprises deemed to have “excellent” work-family balance policies.
What People Are Saying
Cho Young-tae, a professor at Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Public Health, told newspaper Chosun Ilbo: “We need to urgently redesign our labor, welfare, and medical systems, such as extending the retirement age, which is currently 60 years old.”
What Happens Next
Unless the trend is slowed, South Korea will have the highest proportion of elderly people of any country, with a projected 37.3 percent by 2045, warned Joo Hyung-hwan, vice chairman of the National Committee on Aging and Low Birthrate, earlier this month at a forum on population strategy, according to Chosun Ilbo.
However, South Korea may be able to offset some workforce losses through its advanced high-tech and manufacturing prowess. The country, for instance, leads the world in industrial robot density, with one robot for every 10 workers, according to this year’s annual review by the International Federation of Robotics.
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