Latest data shows people aged 65 and above, make up one tenth of South Korea's population.
Many of them are still working in order to cover various expenses, with the heaviest burden coming from medical costs... which are steadily rising.
Kim Ji-yeon reports.
South Korea's population is transitioning from an "aging society" to an "aged society" according to the standards set by the World Health Organization and the United Nations.
Data released by Statistics Korea on Thursday shows... around 7-point-4-million out of the 51-point-6-million people living in Korea including foreigners... are classified as being in the elderly population.
This means people aged 65 or older make up 14-point-3-percent of the country's total population in 2018.
It's an increase from last year's 13-point-9-percent... and the figure is expected to rise gradually to 41-percent by 2060.
The UN defines an "aging society" as one in which more than seven-percent of the population are 65 or older, a country with "an aged society" means the figure is more than 14-percent, and for a "super-aged society" it's 21-percent.
The same data shows six out of ten elderly people have to work to earn a living, with only about a quarter of them being financially supported by their offspring or relatives.
This comes amid rising medical expenses among the elderly population... which amounted to an estimated 36-hundred U.S. dollars per person a month on average in 2017... a near five-percent increase from the previous year.
Kim Ji-yeon, Arirang News.
