Korea officially a super-aged society as population over 65 tops 20% of total
The shift comes with a shrinking number of citizens, while a rise in foreign residents has driven up the overall number of people living in the country.
An older man walks with the aid of a cane at Tapgol Park in Jongno District, central Seoul, on May 27, 2025.NEWS1
Korea is officially a super-aged society, as the share of residents aged 65 and older surpassed 20 percent for the first time, according to 2025 census data released by the Ministry of Data and Statistics on Tuesday.
The proportion of working-age people, meanwhile, dropped below the 70 percent mark in another first since tracking began in 2015.
The ministry tallied 10.72 million older adults last year, accounting for 20.7 percent of the population, while people aged 15 to 64 totaled 35.87 million, accounting for 69.2 percent. Its share has steadily declined since peaking at 73.4 percent in 2015.
A separate metric in 2024, based on resident registration data from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, had already shown the older population exceeding the 20 percent threshold. The difference stems from how the two datasets are compiled. The resident registration data excludes foreign residents and includes Korean citizens abroad who are still registered here, while the census released Tuesday counts everyone actually living in Korea, regardless of nationality.
The growing number of foreign nationals residing in the country has kept the overall population growing, albeit marginally, for the past three years.
The population as a whole increased by around 10,000 people, or 0.02 percent, from a year earlier to reach 51.82 million as of the start of November of last year, due entirely to an increase in foreign residents. The number of Korean nationals actually fell by about 50,000, or 0.1 percent, to 49.71 million. The foreign resident population, on the other hand, grew by some 70,000, or 3.2 percent, to 2.11 million. The population of Korean nationals in the country has now declined for five consecutive years.
Foreigners now make up 4.1 percent of Korea's population, topping 4 percent for the first time. Officials attribute the steady rise to local universities recruiting more international students and to a growing number of seasonal foreign workers filling labor shortages in farming and fishing communities.
Tourists walk around the Myeongdong shopping district in Jung District, central Seoul, on July 28.NEWS1
By any measure, though, Korea's population is undeniably top-heavy.
Last year, there were nearly 30 people aged 65 and older for every 100 working-age people, up from about 28 a year earlier, according to the Data Ministry. By contrast, there were 14.6 children under 15 for every 100 working-age people, down slightly from 15.
The gap between the older population and the young also widened. For every 100 children under 15, there were 205.2 people aged 65 and older, rising from 186.7 a year earlier to surpass 200 for the first time. Nearly every city, county and district in the country — 224 of 229, or 97.8 percent — now has more older residents than children, eight more than a year earlier. The country's median age also rose by 0.6 years to 46.8.
A child cools off from the heat by playing in the water at the water playground that opened at Yongsu-gol Children's Park in Dong District, Daejeon, on July 23.NEWS1
Single-person households also hit a record high, reaching 8.24 million — up by around 199,000, or 2.5 percent, from the year before. They now make up 36.6 percent of all households, up 0.6 percentage points. Seoul had the highest share of single-person households of any region at 40.5 percent, while Gyeonggi had the lowest at 32.2 percent.
By age, people in their 60s were most likely to live alone, accounting for 17.7 percent of that age group, followed by those in their 30s at 17.5 percent and those in their 20s or younger at 16.9 percent.
"As the population ages, the number of single-person households over 60 is increasing, while those in their 20s and younger are decreasing," a ministry official said.
The total number of households in Korea reached 20.181 million last year, up 309,000 units, or 1.6 percent, from a year earlier. The increase was the smallest in both absolute numbers and growth rate since 2021, when the housing supply rose by 286,000 units, or 1.5 percent.
A Data Ministry official attributed the slowdown to weaker housing construction in recent years. "Homes are typically completed and occupied three to four years after construction begins, and the recent slowdown in building has affected the pace of growth in the housing supply," the official said.
Even so, the increase remained concentrated in the greater Seoul area, with Gyeonggi adding about 80,000 homes, followed by Seoul with around 46,000 and Incheon with roughly 34,000, deepening the concentration of housing in the capital region. As a result, 46.8 percent of all homes nationwide were located in the greater Seoul area, up 1.7 percentage points from a year earlier.
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.
