South Korea becomes ‘super-aged’ society as demographic crisis deepens

Newly released official data shows one in 5 people 65 or older

South Korea is now officially a “super-aged” society, with one in five people 65 or older, according to data released on Tuesday, further worsening the country’s demographic crisis.

According to data released by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety on 24 December, people aged 65 and above now number 10.24 million, making up about 20 per cent of the East Asian nation’s total population of 51.22 million.

The UN classifies a country where over 7 per cent of the population is 65 or older as an “ageing society”, with 14 per cent as an “aged society” and with over 20 per cent as “super-aged”.

In South Korea, 22.15 per cent of women and 17.83 per cent of men are 65 or older.

The government has called the demographic crisis a “national emergency” and taken steps to address it, ranging from offering financial incentives and childcare support to devising broader policies aimed at improving work-life balance.

One in five people in South Korea aged 65 or older (AFP via Getty)

The country’s fertility rate, which is the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, has been steadily declining since 2015. It fell below one child per woman for the first time in 2018, hitting 0.98, and further to a historic low of 0.72 in 2023.

The number is among the lowest in the world and significantly below the replacement level of 2.1 births per woman, the threshold required to sustain a population without relying on immigration.

The population could shrink by half by 2100, exacerbating existing social and economic challenges, experts have warned.

Releasing the data, the interior ministry said in a statement that the government needed to urgently set up a “population-focused ministry” to enact “fundamental and systematic response measures” aimed at tackling the population crisis.

“We will mobilise all of the nation’s capabilities to overcome the low birth rate which can be considered a national emergency,” the country’s now-suspended president, Yoon Suk Yeol, said in May, when he announced the creation of a “Ministry of Low Birth Rate Counterplanning”.

“I think the important thing going forward is indeed the economy. Corporate growth and job creation are important too but what I think is more important is to try harder to look for what is inconvenient in the life of each and every person and to resolve them.”

The creation of a “population-focused ministry” has been talked about for months but progress has been stalled due to the conflict within the National Assembly over the president’s declaration of martial law earlier this month, the subsequent impeachment trial and further investigations into allegations of insurrection.

Lawmaker Yong Hye-in with her son in her National Assembly office in Seoul (AFP via Getty)

Several reasons have been listed for South Korea’s falling fertility rate, such as the rising cost of living, stagnant wages, and gender imbalance which leaves women with the majority of the emotional and physical burden of raising children.

It was reported in March that the number of marriages had dropped by 40 per cent over the past decade. The number of marriages recorded in 2023 was 193,673 as against 322,807 in 2013.

South Korea has introduced several initiatives to boost the population, but they have not made a significant difference.

A government scheme to motivate parents to have children offers couples financial assistance ranging from 35m won (£20,566) to 50m won (£29,380) through different incentive and support programmes from the time of the child’s birth until they reach the age of seven.

In September, a couple received 170m won (£95,757) in childbirth grants after giving birth to quintuplets.

In October, the health and welfare ministry awarded two women with civilian service medals for giving birth to 13 children each.