SEOUL, June 16 (Korea Bizwire) – The expanding proportion of seniors since the mid-1990s has exacerbated income inequality among households nationwide, the central bank said Thursday. South Korea’s Gini coefficient for market income gradually increased for older age groups until individuals reached their 50s, but it experienced a significant spike among individuals in their 60s [...]
SEOUL, June 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Koreans aged 65 and above are set to make up 46.4 percent of the total population in 2070, data showed Friday, a projection that shows rapid population aging amid the country’s critically low birthrate. The figure marks a sharp rise from the 18.4 percent estimated for this year, [...]
SEOUL, June 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Seoul Metro, the operator of the subway service in Seoul, announced that it will launch a three-month pilot project starting this month to use voice guidance announcements when senior cards are tagged at ticket gates. The initiative aims to prevent the unauthorized use of senior cards for free subway [...]
SEOUL, June 12 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean seniors over 50 years of age, once considered outcasts in the popular music market, are emerging as significant consumers for K-pop. Subscribers to streaming platforms between the ages of 50 and 59 listened to 1.91 billion minutes of music last year, according to a report by the [...]
SEOUL, May 10 (Korea Bizwire) — Older South Koreans are up in arms over a photo of a local cafe’s “no-senior zone” notice shared on social media. The cafe owner’s intention to welcome guide dogs but prohibit access to seniors added to the controversy. The person responsible for sharing the photo of the cafe said [...]
SEOUL, April 6 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of seniors involved in traffic accidents will spike in the near future with the aging population, a study showed Wednesday. According to the report from the Samsung Traffic Safety Research Institute, there would be 11,459 traffic accidents occurring for every 100,000 seniors by 2026, an increase of [...]
SEOUL, March 15 (Korea Bizwire) – Altough South Korea has a national pension service along with a basic pension for the elderly, the poverty rate among seniors remains high. According to the data from Statistics Korea, the poverty rate among seniors in the country stood at 37.6 percent in 2021, down by 1.3 percentage points from the previous year. [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — A typical day for 66-year-old Hwang Se-ja begins with riding a city train from her house in the small town of Yangpyeong, 45 kilometers outside of Seoul, to her daughter’s house in the capital city’s downtown to babysit her young grandchildren during the day. The 80-minute trip — which [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said Friday his city government will discuss reforming the public transportation fare system, including the possibility of cutting the free public transportation benefit for seniors, to address the aging population and rising debts of the subway operator. “The city of Seoul will consult with the [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — Ahead of the first increase in public transportation fares in eight years, the issue of free access benefits to public transportation is resurfacing as a controversial topic. The Seoul Metropolitan Government recently decided to raise public transportation fares for the first time since June 2015. The city plans to raise [...]