South Korea has joined the category of an aged society with people aged 65 and older taking up 14 percent of total population as of the end of August.

The United Nations defines a country aging if people aged 65 or older make up more than 7 percent of the population, aged with the share at 14 percent to 20 percent and hyper-aged at a higher threshold.

The Ministry of Interior and Safety said Sunday that the country’s total population stood at 51.8 million as of late August, of which people aged 65 and older accounted for 14.02 percent, or 7.26 million.

By region, South Jeolla Province was the oldest with the elderly ratio at 21.4 percent, the only province to exceed 20 percent. North Gyeongsang and North Jeolla both stood at 18.8 percent, with South Gyeongsang at 14.7 percent and Jeju Island at 14.1 percent.

No region registered a ratio below 7 percent.

By Choi Hee-seok

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