Anchor: The government’s future population estimate predicting demographic changes in South Korea over the next 50 years was announced on Thursday. The country’s population is expected to increase until next year, after which a gradual decrease will lead to a population of around 36 million by 2072 despite a consistent inflow of foreign nationals.
Max Lee has more. 

Report: South Korea’s population of 51-point-six million is expected to fall by over 15 million by 2072 should the critically low birth rate trend continue.

According to a biennial report on future population estimates released by Statistics Korea on Thursday, the population will increase slightly to 51-point-75 million next year, before gradually decreasing to fall below 50 million to 47-point-11 million by 2050.

The total is expected to fall below 40 million by 2072, plummeting to a staggering 36-point-22 million, a total last seen in 1977.

Due to the decrease and an aging society, the working age population will plunge from 36-point-74 million in 2022 to 16-point-58 million by 2072.

The statistics agency forecasts the number of births to decrease from 250-thousand in 2022 to 220-thousand in 2025 and to 160-thousand in 2072, while an increase to one-point-08 in the fertility rate by 2050 from zero-point-68 next year is lower than the previous forecast two years ago.

The agency also predicts that the elderly population aged 65 or older will increase from eight-point-98 million in 2022 to over ten million by 2025 and 17-point-27 million in 2072.

The rise in the elderly demographic will be driven in part by an increased life expectancy, with an average of 83-and-a-half years this year climbing annually to 88-point-six years in 2050 and exceeding 90 years in 2072.

While the population is projected to spiral downward, Statistics Korea predicts that the number of foreigners coming into South Korea each year will steadily increase by 55-thousand each year from 2030.

The latest estimate is markedly higher than the projection of around 30-thousand to 40-thousand foreign arrivals two years ago.
Max Lee, KBS World Radio News.