Farmers plant potatoes in a field in Songjeong-dong, Gangneung-si, Gangwon Province (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, April 17 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of farming households in South Korea remained below the 1 million mark for the second consecutive year in 2024, continuing a long-term decline amid the country’s aging population and rapid urbanization, data showed Thursday.
According to the data compiled by Statistics Korea, the number of farming households stood at 974,000 as of December 2024, down 2.5 percent from a year earlier.
The figure dipped below 1 million for the first time in 2023, marking a significant milestone since the government began compiling such data in 1949.
The farming population also fell, decreasing 4.1 percent on-year to 2 million people in 2024.
Of the total, 55.8 percent were aged 65 years or older, reflecting the increasingly aging demographic of the agricultural sector.
In comparison, the proportion of senior citizens in the country’s overall population stood at 19.2 percent.
(Yonhap)
