The undated file photo shows senior citizens at a park. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s population shrank last year, continuing its downward trend for three years in a row, with the number of single-person households close to 10 million, government data showed Sunday.
The Ministry of Interior and Safety said the country’s registered population stood at 51,439,038 as of Dec. 31 of last year, down 0.39 percent from a year earlier.
Single-person households continued to rise to 9,724,256, accounting for 41 percent of the total 23,705,814 households.
Combined with two-person households, the two groups took up 65.2 percent of the total.
The number of people per household hit a record low of 2.17.
By gender, the male population had shrunk for the fourth consecutive year to come in at 25,636,951 while the female population had fallen for two years in a row at 25,802,087.
By age, people in their 50s took up the biggest portion with 16.7 percent and people aged 65 and over took up 18 percent of the population.
South Korea is expected to become a super-aged society in 2025, in which the proportion of those aged 65 and older will hit 20 percent of the total population.
The country became an aged society in 2017, as the proportion of such people exceeded 14 percent.
Of South Korea’s 17 cities and provinces, only five reported an increase in population last year — Incheon, Gyeonggi Province, Sejong, Jeju Island and South Chungcheong Province, the data showed.
In 2021, the country reported its first year-over-year decline in total population.
(Yonhap)
