By Lee Kyung-min
The number of women exceeds that of men this year for the first time in Korea since official census records began here in the late 1960s.
The statistic is attributed to the nation’s rapidly aging population and women's higher life expectancy, government data showed Sunday.
According to statistics released by the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs (MOGAHA), as of June, the number of women reported on the Resident Registration in Korea stood at 25,715,796, outnumbering men by 492.
The gap has been on the constant rise since: 2,645 in July; 4,804 in August.
“Women are known to live longer than men, proven in many developed countries, which Korea is increasingly moving towards,” the ministry said.
Such analysis is supported by a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), released last month, which determined that women here live almost seven years longer than men, with life expectancy for Koreans standing at 85.1 and 78.5, for women and men, respectively. It added that Korea has the fastest aging population among OECD member countries.
South Korea, under the definition of a UN report, has long been categorized as an ageing society, in which those aged 65 or older take up more than seven percent and less than 14 percent of the country’s total population.
By 2026, the nation is set to become an aged society, meaning more than 14 percent of the entire population will be 65 or older, according to the Statistics Korea.
The MOGAHA data also attributed the change to the fact that more girls are being born compared to the late 1990s, when birth ratio of boy-to-girl was 116.5 to 100.
“Due to such an asymmetric birth ratio, men aged between 20 and 39 had outnumbered women up until recently, but the demographic change as a whole shows different aspect when the female elderly population is factored in,” the ministry added.
The gap is expected to widen. “The gap would not narrow in the coming years, as the elderly population would keep increasing.”
It also indicates that the gradual increase of female elderly population would further worsen the social problem because of poverty, according to experts.
“Elderly poverty is largely connected with the number of women living alone without any financial support from their family,” a professor at Soon Chun Hyang University said.
Without the proper government social welfare policy, the country would be subject to an increasing number of problems involving the demographic, according to the professor.
“The government needs to recognize the society’s change in population, and strengthen the social security system to protect those most vulnerable and neglected,” he said.