S. Korea’s sky-high elderly poverty edges even higher to 38.1%

People are waiting in line at a soup kitchen in Jongno-gu, central Seoul in this Feb.12 file photo. (Yonhap)

More than 38 percent of over-65s were in relative poverty in 2022 a South Korean government report showed Monday.

OECD data shows the country had the highest old-age poverty rate among all member states.

The relative poverty rate for South Korea marked a 0.5 percent point increase from 37.6 percent before, according to the report jointly announced by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and Statistics Korea. OECD defines relative poverty rate refers to the percentage of the population with income lower than 50 percent of median, equivalised disposable income, which is after-tax income for each resident.

Old-age relative poverty rate for South Korea had been on a downward trajectory since 2011, when it stood at 46.5 percent. It fell below 40 percent for the first time in 2020, but it is still more than twice the rate for the general population, which is 14.9 percent.

By gender, the relative poverty rate was 31.2 percent for senior male citizens and 43.4 percent for their female counterparts.

The South Korean government's official figure for the old-age relative poverty rate is slightly different than the figure mentioned in OECD's "Pensions at a Glance 2023," since the country tallies the figure for people aged 65 and older while the OECD uses the numbers for those older than 65. OECD's latest figure for South Korea was 40.4 percent as of 2020, compared to the government's figure of 38.9 percent in the same year.

But the OECD's report makes it clear that as of 2020, South Korea's poverty rate for citizens 66 and up was considerably higher than any other member of the group, for which average of was 14.2 percent. The country with the second highest figure in the report was Estonia, with 34.6 percent, according to the most recent figure by the international organization.

South Korea's rate for senior citizens in poverty is also far higher than countries with similar gross domestic product per capita, which according to the International Monetary fund is 32nd in the world. The elderly relative poverty rate for Japan, No. 33 on the GDP per capita list, was 20 percent and Slovenia, No. 31, was 10.7 percent.

And the rate was more than 10 times higher than the countries with the lowest figures in the OECD report, with 3.1 percent in Iceland and 3.8 percent in Norway.

With many of the senior population in relative poverty, another report by Statistics Korea indicated that older people here are less content with their lives. In the February report about the quality of life for South Koreans, 29.9 percent of the respondents aged 65 and above said they were satisfied with their lives, compared to 56.5 percent who said so from the 13-19 age group, 4.18 percent from the 20-34 group, and 38 percent from the 35-64 group.

A total of 36,423 people participated in this particular survey.

By Yoon Min-sik(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)