South Korea in 20 Years: 35.3% of Population 'Elderly'... Support Ratio Triples

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Son Seonhee] It is projected that about 20 years from now, "1 out of 3 people in Korea will be elderly aged 65 or older."

According to the "Domestic and Foreign Population Projections (2020~2040) Reflecting the 2021 Future Population Estimates" recently released by Statistics Korea, the domestic elderly population (aged 65 and over) is expected to increase more than twofold from 8.07 million in 2020 to 16.98 million in 2040. Statistics Korea forecasted that the elderly population will surpass 10 million in 2025, three years from now, and exceed 15 million in 2035.

On the other hand, the total domestic population (domestic + foreign) is expected to decrease by 1.65 million, from 51.84 million to 50.19 million during the same period. This is due to the worsening low birthrate and aging population trends.

Accordingly, the proportion of the elderly population aged 65 and over is estimated to rise from 16.1% in 2020 to 35.3% in 2040. This means that in 2040, 1 out of every 3 people in the country will be elderly.

The domestic working-age population was 35.83 million in 2020 and is expected to decrease by 3.62 million over the next 10 years. It will decline to 32.21 million in 2030 and 26.76 million in 2040. The share of the working-age population in the total population is projected to fall from 71.5% in 2020 to 55.7% in 2040. During the same period, the proportion of the youth population aged 0-14 will also decrease from 12.4% to 8.9%.

The old-age dependency ratio, which indicates the ratio of elderly aged 65 and over to the working-age population aged 15-64, will rise nearly threefold from 22.5 in 2020 to 63.4 in 2040. This means that 3 working-age people will have to support 2 elderly people.

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