Health and Welfare Minister Park Neung-hoo has called for society-wide discussions on raising the threshold age for the elderly by five years, citing the country’s rapidly aging population. 

In a keynote speech at a workshop on low birth rates and aging in Seoul on Thursday, Park raised the necessity of launching discussions on changing the definition of the elderly to those aged 70 or more. 

He said in six years, the country will become a hyperaged society in which one fifth of the population will be at least 65 years old. 

He said average life expectancy for South Koreans is also expected to be highest in the world by 2030. He said this would increase the number of South Korean elderly willing to work. 

The minister said if the threshold is raised to 70, the country’s working age population will increase by four-point-24 million by 2040 while lowering the portion of the elderly by eight-point-four percent.