Poverty Rate Among Koreans Aged 66 and Over at 40.4%... Highest in OECD

Statistics Korea Releases 'Korea's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Implementation Report 2022'
Serious Issues with Low Income Among Elderly... Increase in Basic Academic Underachievement Rates Due to COVID-19

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Kwon Haeyoung] The relative poverty risk of elderly people aged 66 and over in South Korea was found to be the highest among OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries.

According to the "Korea Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Implementation Report 2022" released by Statistics Korea on the 6th, the relative poverty rate of the population aged 66 and over in South Korea (the proportion of people with income below 50% of the median income) was recorded at 40.4%. This is nearly four times the poverty rate of those aged 18 to 65 (10.6%).

The relative poverty risk of the elderly, measured by the poverty rate of those aged 66 and over compared to those aged 18 to 65, was 367.8% (based on 2018), ranking first among OECD countries. Compared to other countries with high relative poverty risk such as Switzerland (250.0%), Australia (246.9%), and Japan (153.8%), South Korea's poverty risk was significantly higher.

The issue of low income among the elderly was also severe. As of 2020, the equivalized median income (based on disposable income) of the population aged 66 and over in South Korea was 18.09 million KRW, which was only 55.8% of the 32.4 million KRW for the population aged 18 to 65.

South Korea's grain self-sufficiency rate was recorded at 20.2% (provisional) as of 2020. This is only a quarter of the 80.5% recorded in 1970, and especially for crops other than rice (92.8%), such as legumes, corn, and wheat, the self-sufficiency rate was below 10%.

Additionally, it was found that more than one in ten low-income households in South Korea failed to secure food stability. Among low-income households classified as 'low' income level in 2020, 13.4% responded in related surveys that they had not consumed sufficient and diverse types of food in the past year.

The proportion of households below the minimum housing standard was 4.6% in 2020, slightly down from 5.3% the previous year, but the rate of substandard housing was higher than the overall average in the metropolitan area (5.6%) and among youth households (7.5%).

In 2020, when COVID-19 first occurred, the proportion of students below basic academic proficiency significantly increased compared to the previous year. Due to COVID-19 prevention measures limiting school attendance and face-to-face classes, learning loss occurred. In particular, for the English subject, the proportion of high school 2nd-year students below basic proficiency rose from 3.6% in 2019 to 8.6% in 2020, an increase of 5.0 percentage points, and the proportion of middle school 3rd-year students below basic proficiency also increased by 3.8 percentage points. The proportion below basic proficiency in mathematics also rose sharply, with the rate in eup/myeon (rural) areas (18.5%) higher than in large cities (11.2%).

The resulting regional gap was 7.3 percentage points, further widening from 4.9 percentage points the previous year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.