South Korea has the worst poverty rate for seniors among OECD countries

In 2023, 39.8 per cent of people over 65 were living below the country’s median income. About 57.6 per cent of seniors want to continue working out of economic necessity; two in three are unhappy with their standard of living. Retirees currently account for 20.3 per cent of the total population, but will reach 40 per cent by 2050. Divorces among seniors are also on the rise.

Rome (Agencies/AsiaNews) – South Korea has the highest rate of poverty among seniors and retirees in the 38-member, Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), new data released today show.

According to Statistics Korea, the relative poverty rate among people aged 65 and over stood at 39.8 per cent in 2023, up 0.1 percentage points over 2022. The main consequence of this is the high level of economic insecurity perceived by older people.

Among those aged 65 to 79 (6,187,000 households), 57.6 per cent say they plan to continue working. Of these, 51.3 per cent cited the need to meet basic living expenses.

Two in three senior adults are dissatisfied with their standard of living and social and economic situation. According to the data, only 38.1 per cent experience personal satisfaction and enjoyment in their professional activities.

Based on the data released today, South Korea has the highest senior poverty rate, which measures the share of people living on less than half of the country's median income.

Seniors currently represent 20.3 per cent of the total population, or approximately 10.5 million people, a number steadily rising that is expected to reach 30 per cent by 2036 and 40 per cent by 2050, based on existing trends.

Seniors will head some 10 million households by 2038 and more than half of all households by 2052.

Calculating the poverty rate includes the average assets of senior-led households. In 2024, it stood at 465.94 million won (US$ 332,856), up by 10.54 million won (about US$ 7,500) over 2023.

Changes have also been observed in family relationships.

In 2024, the number of divorces increased by 8.0 per cent among men aged 65 and over and by 13.2 per cent for women compared to the previous year. By contrast, the overall divorce rate dropped by 1.3 per cent.

Over the same period, the number of remarriage among those aged 65 and over rose by 6.4 per cent for men and 15.1 per cent for women.

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• seniors
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