Statistics Korea on Monday released data forecasting South Korea’s population of people aged 65 or older will exceed 10 million next year. It will be a 5.4% increase compared to this year and will mark an era in which 20% of the country’s population are senior citizens. South Korea’s elderly population broke the nine million mark for the first time in 2022. According to the United Nations, a super-aged society is where more than 20% of the population is 65 years and older.

On the other hand, the population of all other age groups is projected to shrink. Those aged 14 or younger will shrink from 5,686,017 this year to 5,462,580 next year. The number of working-age people will fall from 37,029,895 in 2021 to 36,029,123 next year.