1 in 5 S. Koreans aged 65 or above: ministry

Senior citizens rest at the Tapgol Park in Jongno-gu, central Seoul, Thursday. (Yonhap)

The number of South Koreans aged 65 or above has surpassed the 10 million mark for the first time, making up nearly 20 percent of the total population, government data showed Friday.

According to data provided by the Interior Ministry, the population of senior citizens reached 10,000,062 as of Wednesday, which accounted for 19.51 percent of the officially registered population of nearly 51.27 million.

The figure shows a sharp increase from the corresponding figure from January 2013, when the registered population for those aged 65 or above stood at 6,008,757, accounting for 11.79 percent of the entire population. It was 7,031,367 as of January 2017, 8,026,915 as of December 2019 and 9,004,388 in April 2022, signaling the country's rush into becoming a "super-aged" society as it grapples with an ailing fertility rate.

A country is considered a "super-aged" society when over 20 percent of the population is 65 and older.

The data also showed that women accounted for some 5.57 million in the age group, while their male peers were 4.42 million. Of them, some 4.48 million lived in the capital area, while 5.51 million were outside the greater Seoul area.

By region, South Jeolla Province had the highest ratio of senior citizens at 26.67 percent, followed by North Gyeongsang Province at 25.35 percent, Gangwon Province at 24.72 percent, North Jeolla Province at 24.68 percent and Busan at 23.28 percent. Sejong and Seoul had the lowest ratios at 11.32 percent and 18.96 percent, respectively.

By Park Jun-hee(junheee@heraldcorp.com)