According to statistical data released by the Ministry of Health and Welfare on Thursday, some 28,954 daycare centers across the country closed last year, down nearly 2,000 from 30,923 the previous year.
The massive closure is mainly attributed to the country's rapidly shrinking birth rate. The number of preschool kids has fallen by 25.9 percent in just four years, from 1.37 million in 2019 to 1.01 million in 2023. Alarmingly, some 537 provincial districts have no daycare centers at all.
On the other hand, the number of facilities for the elderly such facilities including nursing homes and community welfare centers has surged from 89,698 in 2022 to 93,056 in 2023.
The elderly population aged 65 and over stood at 9.86 million as of the end of last year and surpassed over 10 million since early this month, accounting for about 18.4 percent of Korea's total population. The figure is projected to rise to 20.6 percent by 2025.
Meanwhile, the number of newborns rose for the second consecutive month in May, marking the first such increase in nearly a decade since October 2015, according to data released the previous day by Statistics Korea.
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