With chronically low birth rates and a rapidly aging population, the country now has fewer people in their 20s than people aged 70 and older.

According to data from the Ministry of Data and Statistics based on the Population and Housing Census, the number of people in their 20s totaled six-point-302 million last year, 193-thousand fewer than a year earlier.

The decline was the largest seen in any age group, including children under ten and people in their 40s.

The population of 20-somethings peaked at seven-point-03 million in 2020 and has decreased for four consecutive years.

Last year the count for people in their 70s and older stood at six-point-54 million, with this demographic outnumbering people in their 20s for the first time since the nation started compiling related data in 1925.

Also for the first time, people in their 20s are the smallest adult demographic in South Korea.