South Korea’s population dynamics are shifting towards an older population, with a declining fertility rate and fewer births leading to projections that by 2072, nearly half of the population will be aged 65 or older.
According to the Statistics Korea, the country’s population in 2023 stood at 51.71 million, with seniors aged 65 and older constituting 18.2% of the total. It’s anticipated that by 2072, the elderly demographic will account for nearly half of the population. The breakdown reveals that 5.71 million individuals (11.0%) fell into the 0-14 age group, 36.57 million (70.7%) were between the ages of 15-64, and 9.44 million (18.2%) were 65 years of age or older.
Statistics Korea’s estimates, the total population in 2072 will be around 36.22 million. Of this population, 47.7% (17.27 million) will be aged 65 and above. It is also predicted that in 2072, the number of individuals aged 0-14 will be 2.38 million (6.6%) and those aged 15-64 will be 16.58 million (45.8%). Both of these age groups are expected to decrease from their current numbers.
The highest population of S. Korea in 2023 was recorded in Gyeonggi, Seoul, Gyeongsangnam-do, Busan, and Incheon, respectively. More than half of the total population was concentrated in the metropolitan area of Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon.
On the other hand, it is projected that by 2050, regions like Gyeonggi, Sejong, Jeju, and Chungcheongnam-do will experience an increase in population. Meanwhile, all other regions are expected to see a decline in population.
The total fertility rate of the nation in 2023 was 0.72, which was 0.06 lower than the previous year’s rate of 0.78. This marks the lowest rate ever recorded since the government started keeping records in 1970.
In the last two decades, the number of births has been decreasing steadily. From 640,000 in 2000, it dropped to the 400,000s between 2002 and 2016, and further declined to the 300,000s between 2017 and 2019. The number of births has dropped even lower since 2020, with only 230,000 births recorded last year, which is only half of the level recorded in 2012, which was 485,000.
In 2022, the total number of households, single-person households, and elderly households all increased compared to the previous year. The total number of households in 2022 was 22.38 million, which is 1.6% or 360,000 households more than the previous year’s total of 22.02 million.
The average number of people per household in 2022 was 2.2, a decrease of 0.1 from the previous year’s rate of 2.3. The average number of people per household has been decreasing since 2017 when it was 2.5.
