Korea‘s gross domestic product is projected to shrink 8 percent in the next 10 years, as the population’s rapid aging takes the steam out of the economy, a local think tank said Tuesday.

In its report, Korea Economic Research Institute estimated that a 1 percentage point growth in the proportion of people aged 65 in the total population leads to a 0.97 percent drop in gross domestic product. As Korea is projected to enter by 2026 the stage of a “super-aged society,” where over 20 percent of the population are aged 65 or more, the country‘s GDP will drop by 7.9 percent from the 2014 level, it said.

By 2050, when 35.15 percent of Koreans are projected to be over the age bar, the economy will shrink by 21.9 percent compared to 2014, the think tank added.