South Korea has become an aged society with more than 14 percent of the total population aged 65 or older last year. 

In its 2017 Population and Housing Census released on Monday, Statistics Korea said that the nation’s population grew by some 150-thousand to 51-point-42 million as of November first. Of that total, 14-point-two percent, or some seven million were aged 65 or older. 

The transition comes 17 years after South Korea became an aging society. 

The United Nations defines a country as an aging society if more than seven percent of its population is aged 65 or older. If that proportion exceeds 14 percent, the country is regarded to be an aged society, and if the proportion goes over 20 percent, a super aged society. 

Meanwhile, the statistics agency found that the working age population, aged 15 to 64, slipped by 116-thousand to some 36-point-two million. It marked the first time for such population to post a decline.