By Lee Hyo-sik
The number of senior citizens in Seoul exceeded 1 million for the first time ever last year, with nearly one in every 10 Seoulites aged over 65, amid Koreans’ rapidly rising life expectancy.
According to data released by the Seoul Metropolitan Government Wednesday, the number of the elderly aged over 65 totaled little more than 1 million as of December 2010, up 6.3 percent from 943,000 a year earlier.
Excluding the number of foreign residents, the figure accounted for 9.7 percent of Seoul’s population of 10.32 million.
“The number of senior citizens residing in the city has increased over the years in line with rising life expectancy. Statistics Korea had initially forecast that Seoulites aged over 65 would surpass the 1 million mark in 2012,” said Oh Cheol-sen, an official at Seoul City’s elderly policy division. “But the projection materialized last year, indicating the population aging in the nation’s capital is much faster than previously thought.”
The average life expectancy for Koreans stood at 80.5 years in 2009, up sharply from 65.7 years in 1980, Statistics Korea said.
Oh also said many Koreans used to go back to their hometowns in provincial areas in the past after retirement. But these days, senior citizens tend to stay in Seoul even after they retire because they want to take advantage of better medical facilities and other urban amenities, which contributed to boosting the elderly population, he said.
On the other hand, the number of Seoulites aged 15 or less declined by 4.4 percent to 1.43 million in 2010 from 1.51 million in 2009, due to the country’s rapidly falling birthrate.
As a whole, Seoul’s population inched up by 1.1 percent to 10.58 million last year from 10.46 million in 2009. The population has been on the rise since 2003 when it stood at 10.28 million.
Of the 10.58 million, the number of foreigners residing in Seoul reached 263,000, up 2.8 percent from 256,000 the previous year.