SEOUL, April 17 (Korea Bizwire) — 1 in 3 residents of rural regions are more than 70 years old, showing signs of an accelerating aging population, a recent study showed.
Statistics Koreas announced Thursday that there are 1.36 million senior residents over 60 years of age living in rural areas, comprising 60.6 percent of the entire rural population.
Among them, 753,000 were over 70 years old, an increase of 33.5 percent from last year.
While the senior population over 60 years of age in rural areas has increased, the population of inhabitants below 50 years of age has dropped.
The proportion of senior citizens over 65 years old in rural areas reached 46.6 percent this year, an increase of 1.9 percentage points from last year.
The proportion exceeds the average size of the senior population in the country (14.9 percent) by more than threefold.
Image Credit: Korea Bizwire / Haenam County Office / photonews@koreabizwire.com
