The percentage of seniors among the population in rural regions in South Korea surpassed 50 percent for the first time last year, due largely to an exodus of young people from such communities.

According to Statistics Korea on Wednesday, as of last December, there were 999-thousand farming households, 42-thousand fishery households and 99-thousand forestry households in the country.

The total population among the three types of households fell three-point-five, four-point-one and two-point-seven percent from a year earlier, to nearly two-point-09 million, 87-thousand and 204-thousand, respectively.

The percentage of seniors aged 65 or older in these communities jumped two-point-eight to four percentage points year-on-year to 52-point-six, 48 and 52-point-eight percent, respectively, the first time since the late 1940s that the elderly population exceeded 50 percent of the total.

The percentage is nearly triple that of seniors in the entire population, which stood at 18-point-two percent last year.