Data show productive population age group becoming smaller than the majority, and inadequate government preparation for slew of effects
Residents of Sinpyeong township in Uiseong County, North Gyeongsang Province, were getting ready for their autumn harvest on Oct. 12. Cutting rice plants was an urgent task, they said - and all of the work is done by local village women in their seventies and older.
“My job used to be to get the kids out if they crawled into the fields, but you don’t hear babies crying here these days,” said Kim Tae-bun, 74.
At 56 square kilometers Sinpyeong is about 18 times larger in area than Seoul's Yeouido neighborhood (2.9 square kilometers), but its 11 villages include not one obstetrician’s clinic, daycare center, or preschool. What it does have is 15 senior citizen centers.
“There’s exactly one elementary school student in our neighborhood [Jungnyul No. 1 village], but he doesn’t have any friends to play with, so he always follows us old women to the senior citizen center,” Kim said.
According to an index of “local community endangerment” for 3,482 townships and neighborhoods nationwide by researcher Lee Sang-ho of the Korea Employment Information Service, Sinpyeong was ranked as the community most likely to disappear in 30 years. Once a population is more than 7% people older than 65, it is classified an “aging society.” Over 14% indicates an “aged society,” while 20% or more indicates a “hyper-aged society.” In Sinpyeong‘s case, its 444 seniors account for well over half its total population - 811 registered residents as of July. The index in question represents the ratio of residents over 65 to the female population aged 20 to 39. A total of 1,383 townships and neighborhoods, or roughly one-third the total, fall in the “endangered” category.
