Half of South Korea's population was found to reside in Seoul and its surrounding regions last year.

Statistics Korea said on Friday that as of November 1, 2019, 51-point-78 million people lived in the country, up point-three percent from a year earlier.

Of the total, 25-point-89 million, or 50 percent, lived in Seoul, the surrounding Gyeonggi Province and nearby Incheon, up point-seven percent on-year. It is the first time that the population in the capital region climbed to the 50-percent range.

In a sign of a rapidly aging society, there were seven-point-75 million people aged 65 or older, which is 15-point-five percent of the total population. This is in contrast to six-point-31 million children under 14, down 170-thousand on-year.

The economically active population, or those between the ages of 15 and 64, also fell 160-thousand on-year to 35-point-94 million.