SEJONG -- South Korea’s elderly population has increased by more than 1 million in only three years, with the growth pace accelerating and their portion of the entire population expanding, government data showed.

According to the Ministry of Interior and Safety, the number of seniors, or people aged 65 or over, came to 8.46 million as of November. This posted a growth of 1.13 million (or 15.4 percent) from 7.33 million in November 2017.

The pace is speeding up recently, given that the tally for seniors climbed by 830,000 (or 12.7 percent) between November 2014 (when it was 6.5 million) and November 2017.

In November 2008 their percentage of the entire population was just 10.2 percent. But the figure rose to 11.2 percent in November 2011, 12.7 percent in November 2014, 14.2 percent in November 2017 and 16.3 percent in November 2020.

Given that the number of those aged 60 or over posted 12.39 million (or 23.9 percent of the population) last month, the growth pace in the portion of people aged 65 or over is expected to sharply rise in the 2020s.

Further, people aged 50 or over reached 21.04 million, or about 2 in 5 residents (40.6 percent of the entire population, 51.83 million). This contrasts from a decade earlier in November 2010, when the proportion for the corresponding age bracket was 29.2 percent.

Korea also saw the number of centenarians surge over the past decade -- 2,336 in November 2008, 14,942 in November 2014 and 21,774 in November 2020.

The situation is aggravating social and economic concerns as the portion of the working age population -- people aged 15 and 64 -- is continually decreasing.

The working age population, which was 73.4 percent in November 2011, fell to 73.2 percent in November 2014, 72.7 percent in November 2017 and 71.5 percent in November 2020.

A large portion of Korea’s baby boomer generation -- those born between 1955 and 1963 -- still belongs to the working age population.

But as those born in 1955 have turned 65 this year -- and those born in 1956 follow suit soon -- they are exiting the working age range. The working age population is therefore expected to shrink faster in the coming years.

Data held by Statistics Korea predicts that the proportion of people aged 15-64 will fall below 70 percent of the population within four years to 69.9 percent in 2024, while some observers predict the pace could speed up.

The agency also estimates that this figure would be less than 60 percent in 2036 and less than 50 percent in 2056.

By 2065 the senior population is projected to overtake the working age population, relative to the total population, in 2065, when working age people will comprise 45.9 percent of the total and seniors 46.1 percent, according to the estimate from Statistics Korea.

Meanwhile, Korea ranked second in the growth of its elderly population since 2000 among the 37 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

OECD data showed that Korea posted 7.22 percent in the portion of seniors of the population in 2000. But the figure climbed by 7.07 percentage points in less than two decades to 14.29 percent as of 2018.

This marked the second-steepest rise, after Japan, which posted a 10.77 percentage point growth over the corresponding 18 years.

The figure for Korea far exceeded the OECD average, by 4.12 percentage points, and the world average, by 2.03 percentage points.

Among those lagging behind the OECD average were France at 3.97 percentage points, Switzerland with 3.05 percentage points and the US with 3.6 percentage points.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)