More than one in five South Koreans are now 65 or older

By Minh Nga January 5, 2026 | 07:04 pm PT

Two eldermen are seen walking in a park in Seoul, April 2025. Photo by Dang Le

South Korea has entered deeper into its super-aged status as people who are 65 and older surpassed 21% of the population, reaching 10.8 million people.

According to 2025 population data released by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety on Jan. 4, the elderly now account for 21.21% of the nation's 51 million residents.

This milestone follows South Korea's entry into the United Nations-designated "super-aged" category in 2024, when the ratio was 20.1%.

Under UN standards, a society is classified as aging when 7% of its population is 65 or older, aged at 14%, and super-aged once that figure crosses the 20% threshold.

This rapid demographic shift is no longer confined to rural provinces but is increasingly visible in major metropolitan hubs. For the first time, both Seoul and Jeju Island have joined the ranks of super-aged regions with elderly population shares of 20.43% and 20.09%, respectively, according to Korea JoongAng Daily.

The trend is even more stark in cities like Busan, where the proportion has climbed to 25.26%, and in rural areas such as Uiseong County, where nearly half of all residents are elderly. On average, regions outside the capital area are now recording an aging rate of 23.69%.

Alongside this graying population is a sharp rise in the number of people living alone.

The ministry data indicates that single-person households grew by 1.5% over the past year to reach 10.27 million, representing roughly 42% of all households in the country, as reported by Korea Times.

A major portion of this group is elderly, with 21.6% of single-person households consisting of individuals aged 70 and above, while another 18.9% are in their 60s.

The demographics also highlight a clear gender imbalance, as elderly women outnumber elderly men by approximately 4.39 percentage points.

Because South Korean women generally have a longer life expectancy, they are significantly more likely to live alone in their later years; statistics show that more than 31% of women in single-person households are over the age of 70.

In contrast, men living alone are primarily concentrated within the working-age population between the ages of 20 and 60, with the highest proportion found among those in their 30s, who account for more than 20% of that demographic.