KUALA LUMPUR - A little over one in every five people in South Korea was aged 65 or older in 2025, marking a further deepening of its transition into a “super-aged society.”

Official figures from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety showed that some 10.84 million people were aged 65 and above in 2025, representing 21.21 per cent of the total population of about 51.11 million, as reported by The Korea Times.

Under the United Nations’ demographic classification, a nation with more than 20 per cent of its population aged 65 or over is considered super-aged, a threshold Korea crossed in 2024.

Women were disproportionately represented in the senior cohort, with 23.39 per cent aged 65 or older compared with 19 per cent of men in that age group.

By region, the share of seniors was lower in the capital area at 18.82 per cent, while outside the capital it reached 23.69 per cent, and 11 provinces and cities, including Seoul, saw those aged 65 and above account for more than one-fifth of residents for the first time.

The number of single-person households climbed about 1.5 per cent on the year to 10.27 million in 2025, accounting for around 42 per cent of all households, with 2.21 million people aged 70 and older living alone and another 18.9 per cent in their 60s.

South Korea’s migrant-background population also continued to grow, with the number of residents who are foreign nationals, naturalised citizens or second-generation migrants reaching about 2.71 million — exceeding 5 per cent of the total population.

A large majority of this group are of working age, helping to support the labour market amid demographic pressures. 

Foreign workers in South Korea numbered more than 1.1 million and accounted for roughly 3.8 per cent of total employment, while the broader labour force comprised about 29.16 million employed people. 

These trends underscore the challenges South Korea faces with an ageing population, shifting household structures and a changing workforce shaped by both domestic demographic shifts and international migration patterns.