South Korea’s population peaked last year and has begun a full-scale decline, according to the latest estimates released by Statistics Korea on Tuesday.

Data showed that the total population, based on socioeconomic indicators, stood at 51-point-75 million in 2024.

By 2072, the population is expected to plummet to around 36-point-two million people.

Meanwhile, the number of people in the country aged 65 or older topped nine-point-nine million, about 19 percent of the total population, and that figure is expected to soar to about 48 percent in the next 47 years.

The foreign population has also shown a steady rise since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching one-point-88 million as of the end of 2023, up 193-thousand from a year earlier, while the number of registered foreign nationals came to nearly one-point-35 million, up 159-thousand on-year.

Birth indicators showed a rebound for the first time since 2015, with this year’s fertility rate at zero-point-75, marking a slight on-year rise, and with 238-thousand-300 births recorded.

Health indicators also showed signs of recovery with the average life expectancy, which first declined in 2022, increasing to 83-point-five years in 2023.

In terms of environmental indicators, the statistical office said annual average concentrations of fine dust and ultrafine dust in the atmosphere, which dropped to all-time lows during the pandemic, increased due to greater factory activity at home and abroad.

Fine dust concentrations increased by six micrograms per cubic meter year-on-year, while ultrafine dust levels increased by one microgram per cubic meter.