Number of farmers, fishermen down in S. Korea amid aging population

Seoul, April 19 The number of South Koreans in the agrofisheries sector fell in 2022 from a year earlier, reflecting the rapidly aging population, data showed on Wednesday.

The number of households in the farming business totaled 1.02 million in 2022, down 0.8 per cent from the previous year, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.

The number of farmers dropped 2.3 per cent on-year to 2.16 million, reports Yonhap News Agency.

In the fishing sector, the number of families fell 1.8 per cent on-year to 42,500 last year, with the population decreasing 3.2 per cent to 90,800 over the period.

People aged 65 and above accounted for 49.8 per cent of the population in the farming business, up 3 percentage points from a year earlier. They took up 44.2 per cent of the people involved in the fishing sector, rising 3.7 percentage points over the period.

Over the past decades, an increasing number of younger South Koreans living in rural areas have migrated to cities in pursuit of higher-paying jobs, and this trend has accelerated in recent years due to the aging population.

Just 23,179 babies were born in South Korea in January, sinking 6 per cent from a year earlier, a separate report from Statistics Korea showed earlier.

It marked the lowest number for any January since the statistics agency started compiling monthly data in 1981.

The number of babies born in South Korea has been falling on-year for 86 consecutive months.

Meanwhile, among farming households, just 3.8 per cent saw their annual sales reach 100 million won ($75,815) or more in 2022, down 0.1 percentage point from the previous year.

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor