Headquarters of National Pension Service in Jeonju, N. Jeolla Prov. (image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jun. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of national pension fund subscribers will begin falling in 2019 after peaking next year due to the declining economically active population, a report said Wednesday.
The figure is expected to rise to 21.89 million this year and 21.93 million in 2018 from 21.83 million in 2016 before falling to 21.91 million in 2019, the report released by the National Pension Research Institute said.
The number is forecast to further drop to 21.83 million in 2020 and 21.76 million in 2021.
South Korea’s economically active population aged between 15 and 64 will likely decline to 37.62 million this year and 20.6 million in 2065 from 37.63 million last year, according to data by Statistics Korea.
The proportion of economically active population is also predicted to drop to 47.9 percent in 2065 from 73.4 percent in 2015.
South Korea’s fertility rate, one of the world’s lowest, stood at 1.25 last year.
The size of premiums to be collected by the National Pension Service (NPS) will gradually surge to 41.9 trillion won (US$37.2 billion) in 2018, 43.2 trillion won in 2019, 44.4 trillion won in 2020 and 45.6 trillion won in 2021 from 40.5 trillion won this year, the report said.
The number of pensioners is also forecast to grow to 4.78 million in 2018, 5.17 million in 2019, 5.61 million in 2020 and 6.07 million in 2021 from 4.64 million this year.
The total amount of national pension entitlements will also likely surge to 21.7 trillion won in 2018, 23.4 trillion won in 2019, 26.9 trillion won in 2020 and 30.9 trillion won in 2021 from 19.4 trillion won in 2017.
The size of the funds managed by the NPS, meanwhile, is expected to increase to 600 trillion won in 2017, 644 trillion won in 2018, 740 trillion won in 2020 and 789 trillion won in 2021 from 558 trillion won last year.
(Yonhap)
