South Korea’s senior population surpassed that of young people for the first time this year as the country ages at a rapid pace, government data showed Tuesday. (Image: Yonhap)
SEJONG, Sept. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s senior population surpassed that of young people for the first time this year as the country ages at a rapid pace, government data showed Tuesday.
The number of people over 65 years reached 7.07 million in 2017, accounting for a record 13.8 percent of all citizens, according to the data released by Statistics Korea.
It is the first time that the number of seniors surpassed that of youths aged 14 or under, which stood at 6.75 million in 2017.
As a result, South Korea’s aged-child ratio, referring to the percentage of those over 65 to children between 0 and 14, soared to 104.8, piercing the 100 line for the first time.
It was 6.9 in 1960, 20 in 1990 and 34.3 in 2000, but rose sharply to 50.4 in 2006 and 98.6 in 2016.
South Korea is fast becoming an “aged society,” in which more than 14 percent of the population is 65 or older, and will become a “super-aged society” in 2025, where more than one in five of the population will be seniors.
(Yonhap)
