Jeonbuk 'Muju' Jangsu Village Ranks 1st... Highest Number of Residents Over 100 Years Old

73 People Aged 100 or Older in 2022
Mujugun Attributes This to Clean Nature and Senior Welfare

Muju-gun in Jeollabuk-do has been confirmed as the ‘Longevity Village’ with the highest population of people aged 100 or older nationwide.

According to data received from Statistics Korea by Nam In-soon, a member of the National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea (Seoul Songpa-gu B), as of 2022, the region with the highest number of people aged 100 or older per 100,000 population was Muju-gun in Jeollabuk-do, with 73.2 people. This was followed by Boseong-gun in Jeollanam-do (70.2), Goheung-gun in Jeollanam-do (57.9), Gochang-gun in Jeollabuk-do (56.8), and Yeongyang-gun in Gyeongsangbuk-do (53.4). Among the top 10 regions with the highest population aged 100 or older, six were in Jeollanam-do and Jeollabuk-do.

During the same period, Ulleung-gun in Gyeongsangbuk-do had the lowest number of people aged 100 or older, with zero. This was followed by Nam-gu in Ulsan (3.3), Osan-si in Gyeonggi-do (3.5), Jung-gu in Ulsan (4), and Sasang-gu in Busan (5).

Muju County Office Photo by Yonhap News

In the case of Muju-gun, the proportion of elderly people aged 65 or older accounts for 39% of the total population (23,370 people). The average number of children a woman is expected to give birth to during her childbearing years (ages 15?49) was 0.85 as of last year.

Muju-gun attributes having the highest population aged 100 or older nationwide to the implementation of various elderly welfare services at the local government level. Muju-gun analyzed, “It seems that the high number of people aged 100 or older is due to the diverse programs operated for elderly physical activities, cognitive abilities, and emotional exchanges.”

Currently, Muju-gun operates facilities such as a comprehensive welfare center for the disabled and elderly and a senior college to help retired elderly people remain active in society. It is also promoting elderly job projects linked with village development projects, customized care services, and beauty and grooming welfare projects that provide vouchers worth about 120,000 KRW annually to those aged 70 or older.

They added, “The abundance of ingredients such as wild mountain vegetables, Cheonma (Gastrodia elata), and apples grown in a clean natural environment is also cited as a secret to longevity.”

Meanwhile, the population aged 100 or older nationwide has increased by 63.56% over the past five years. By year, the numbers were 4,232 in 2018, 4,819 in 2019, 5,581 in 2020, 6,518 in 2021, and 6,922 in 2022, showing an increase every year. By gender, there were 1,100 men (15.89%) and 5,822 women (84.11%), with women outnumbering men by more than five times.

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