More Than Half of South Korea’s Farm, Forestry and Fishing Population Is 65 or Older

The year’s first rice planting is underway in a paddy in Gwang-ri, Seobu-myeon, Hongseong County, South Chungcheong Province. [Photo: Hongseong County]

More than half of South Korea’s farm, forestry and fishing population is now 65 or older, as household sizes continue to shrink rapidly.

According to the National Data Policy Agency’s preliminary results of the “2025 Census of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries” released on the 28th, the farm, forestry and fishing population totaled 2,576,000 people as of last December, living in 1,276,000 households.

That compares with about 2.38 million people and 1.06 million households in the 2020 census — increases of about 196,000 people and 216,000 households.

The agency said the rise reflects an expanded statistical scope as more people moved to rural areas and additional administrative records — including farmland ledgers, fisheries registration lists and forestry management databases — were added to the survey coverage.

The share of residents ages 65 and older in farm, forestry and fishing households rose to 51.0% in 2025 from 41.9% in 2020, up 9.1 percentage points. That is more than 2.5 times the share in the overall population, which stood at 20.3%. By sector, the elderly share was 51.3% for farm households, 48.2% for fishing households and 47.9% for forestry households.

In farm households, the share of working-age residents (15-64) was 45.8% and the share of children (0-14) was 2.9%, down 23.7 percentage points and 7.3 percentage points, respectively, from the overall population. The median age was 65.3, or 18.6 years higher than the national figure.

Smaller households also became more common. One-person households accounted for 27.2% in 2025, up from 20.0% in 2020, an increase of 7.2 percentage points.

The share of three-person households fell to 11.6% from 14.3%, and four-person households dropped to 7.4% from 11.9%. Two-person households made up 53.8% last year, the largest share, meaning one- and two-person households accounted for more than 80% of all farm, forestry and fishing households.

By area, the share living in “dong” neighborhoods rose to 32.4% in 2025 from 27.5% in 2020, while the share in “eup” and “myeon” areas fell to 67.7% from 72.5%. The shift reflects a move toward dong areas, where medical care, transportation and education are generally more accessible than in eup and myeon communities.

* This article has been translated by AI.

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