Almost half of the South Korean farmers were aged 65 or higher last year as younger people continued to leave rural areas amid the aging population, statistical office data showed Wednesday.
The number of farmers aged 65 or higher was 1,078,000 in 2022, accounting for 49.8 percent of the total population in the agricultural sector, according to Statistics Korea. The percentage of elderly farmers was up from 46.8 percent in 2021 and far higher than 18.0 percent which was the proportion of the total elderly population in 2022.
Farmers in their 70s or older marked the highest proportion of 34.9 percent in the age group last year, followed by those in their 60s with 30.2 percent and those in their 50s with 15.8 percent.—Xinhua
