Aging South Korea... Highest Ever Proportion of Elderly Population

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Son Seonhee] South Korea is aging. Last year, the total population decreased for the first time in 72 years since the establishment of the government, and the elderly population surged to 8.71 million. The proportion of the elderly population reached 16.8%, the highest ever recorded.

According to the '2021 Population and Housing Census' recently announced by Statistics Korea, as of November 1 last year, the total population was 51.738 million, down 91,000 from the previous year. Since related statistics began in 1949, right after the establishment of the government, this is the first time the total population has shown a decline. The domestic population decreased by 45,000 due to the worsening low birthrate trend, and foreigners decreased by 46,000 due to the impact of COVID-19.

A bigger problem than population decline is the rapid pace of aging. The working-age population aged 15 to 64 decreased by 344,000 (-0.9%) to 36.944 million. The working-age population peaked in 2016 and has decreased by 677,000 over five years, half of which was last year's decline. This means the decrease in the working-age population is accelerating sharply.

Due to the severe low birthrate trend, the youth population aged 0 to 14 (6.087 million) also shrank by 167,000 (-2.7%) in one year.

On the other hand, the elderly population aged 65 and over increased by 419,000 (5.1%) to 8.707 million in one year. The proportion of the elderly population in the total population rose from 13.3% in 2016 to 16.8% last year, an increase of 3.5 percentage points in five years. This means one in six people is elderly. Notably, for the first time last year, those aged 85 and over accounted for 10.1%, marking a double-digit share.

As the working-age population continues to decline and the elderly population increases, the burden of supporting the elderly is growing. The old-age dependency ratio, which indicates the number of elderly people supported per 100 working-age people, rose to 23.6 last year. This means 4.2 working-age people support one elderly person.

The aging index, which represents the ratio of the elderly population to the youth population per 100 youths, jumped by 10.5 to 143.0. This is the largest increase since the annual survey began in 2016.

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