South Korea’s rapidly ageing population has reached a new milestone, with people aged 70 and above outnumbering those in their 20s for the first time on record.
According to the Ministry of Data and Statistics, the number of those aged 70 and over has reached 6.54 million, exceeding the 6.3 million still in their 20s, the Korea Times reported.
The last time these population cohorts were close in size was a century ago in 1925, when modern census data began.
The population of Koreans in their 20s has now fallen for four years straight, declining from 7.03 million in 2020 to 6.3 million last year, according to Chosun Biz.
This marks the first time in over 100 years that people in their 20s have become the smallest adult age group.
Those in their 50s now make up the largest age bracket, at 8.71 million, followed by those in their 40s.
The shift is significant for a country facing one of the world’s fastest-declining birth rates.
Experts have said these shifts reflect both a collapse in birth rates and an increase in life expectancy. South Korea’s fertility rate – now 0.72 births per woman, one of the lowest in the world – has continued to drop despite years of government incentives, while average life expectancy has climbed to almost 84 years.
“The shrinking population and employment challenges among people in their 20s are not just generational issues, but part of a structural crisis that directly threatens the vitality of the Korean economy,” Kim Gwang Seok, head of economic research at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, told Korea Joongang Daily.
“In the long term, this could weaken the country’s overall growth potential.”
That issue is visible in the labour market, where opportunities for younger Koreans have continued to narrow amid falling employment rates and a growing preference among major firms for experienced hires over new graduates.
In August 2024, the employment rate for people in their 20s stood at 60.5 per cent, down 1.2 percentage points from a year earlier, a stagnation now lasting 12 straight months.
The unemployment rate for the same age group was 5 per cent, up a full percentage point year-on-year and the highest for August since 2022, when it was 5.4 per cent.
A survey by the Federation of Korean Industries revealed that across the 500 largest firms in the country, 28.1 per cent of entry-level hires in the second half of 2024 were experienced workers, up 2.3 percentage points from last year.
Roughly one in four people aged 70 and above remains employed, often in low-paid jobs in agriculture, retail, or social services, according to data from the Ministry of Employment and Labour, which shows older Koreans are staying in the workforce longer.
In December 2024, South Korea officially became a “super-aged” society, with one in five people aged 65 or older.
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.
The population could yet shrink by half by 2100, exacerbating existing social and economic challenges, experts have warned.
