Pedestrians walk past a menu board featuring Korean dishes outside a restaurant in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Sept. 14.NEWS1
One in three business owners in Korea is now 60 or older, according to a government report.
The age increase has been particularly pronounced in the restaurant industry, where the overall number of business owners fell even as the number of older operators increased.
Korea had 3.63 million business owners aged 60 or older as of the end of August, or 34.8 percent of the country’s 10.45 million business owners, according to August data from the National Tax Service released on Friday. The figures include both individual and corporate business operators.
The number of business owners aged 60 or older increased by 184,226, or 5.3 percent, from a year earlier. The overall number of business owners rose by just 133,382, or 1.3 percent, over the same period.
The number of business owners in their 60s increased by 73,682, or 3.1 percent, while those aged 70 or older rose by 110,544, or 10.4 percent.
Every younger age group recorded a decline. The number of business owners under 30 fell by 17,162, or 4.9 percent, the steepest drop among all age groups. The figure declined 0.1 percent among those in their 30s, 0.9 percent among those in their 40s and 0.4 percent among those in their 50s.
The trend was particularly stark in the restaurant industry.
The total number of restaurant business owners fell by 14,801, or 1.8 percent, over the past year, but the number of owners aged 60 or older increased by 7,820, or 3.5 percent. Restaurant operators aged 70 or older numbered 50,007, more than 10,000 above the 39,031 operators under 30.
A pedestrian walks past a fried chicken stand in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Nov. 9, 2025.YONHAP
Business owners are also aging faster than the population itself.
Korea’s population aged 60 or older grew 3.3 percent from August last year to August this year. The population aged 70 or older grew faster at 5.3 percent, according to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. The growth rate among people aged 70 or older was only about half the increase recorded among business owners in the same age group.
The population in its 30s, meanwhile, grew 0.8 percent even as the number of business owners in that age group declined.
An aging population and inadequate retirement income are seen as key factors behind the increase in older business owners. Many older Koreans continue working after retirement because pensions alone are not enough to cover living expenses, while weak domestic demand and worsening conditions for the self-employed have reduced incentives for younger people to start businesses.
Some 46 percent of older Koreans who became self-employed after retirement were classified as livelihood-driven workers with low pension income and long working hours, according to a report released by the Bank of Korea in May last year.
They received an average of just 790,000 won ($590) a month in pension income but worked 46 hours a week.
Self-employment does not necessarily provide financial security in retirement, either. Some 35 percent of newly self-employed people in their 60s earned less than 10 million won in annual operating profit.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
