South Korea’s population is projected to fall from over 50 million last year to 39 million in 2065 due to low birth rates, according to a new report. The working age population, aged 15 to 64, is expected to shrink by about 10 million in 20 years. This drop will hamper economic growth as a decline in the working age population will likely diminish consumption and increase labor costs.
The Korean Peninsula Population Institute for Future predicted that Korea’s population will decrease from 51.71 million last year to 39.69 million by 2065 in its ‘2024 Population Report’ released on May 6. The working age population is projected to decline from 36.57 million last year to 27.17 million by 2044.
“The sharp fall in the working age population will lead to a collapse in the domestic market and solidify long-term low growth,” the report said.
The median age of Korea is forecasted to rise to 50.3 in 2031 from 45.5 last year, which means around half of the population will be over 50 years old. The number of 6-year-olds entering elementary school is set to plummet to 220,000 in 2033 from 430,000 last year, while 20-year-old men entering the military will drop to 190,000 in 2048 from 260,000 last year.
The report also predicted that people aged 65 and above will become the largest demographic, reaching a record high of 18.91 million in 2050 and accounting for 40% of the total population. The proportion of single-person households consisting of individuals aged 65 and above will increase from 1.99 million households, which is 9.1% of all households as of last year, to 4.65 million households in 2049, accounting for 20.2% of households.
The number of octogenarians aged 80 and above will climb from 2.29 million (4.4% of the total population) last year to 8.49 million (20.3%) in 2061. In 2060, deaths are expected to outnumber births by 4.8 times, with 746,000 deaths compared to 156,000 births.