SEOUL, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- The number of farming households in South Korea rose in double figures over the past five years in 2025 due to an expanded census scope, statistical ministry data showed Tuesday.
The country recorded 1,276,000 agriculture, fishing and forestry households as of Dec. 1, 2025, up 19.7 percent compared to five years ago, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics.
The total population within the sectors expanded 8.0 percent to 2,575,000 in the five-year period.
The growth was attributed to the expansion of the census register, which captured households that went undetected in previous surveys, rather than a structural rebound.
The proportion of the elderly population aged 65 or older in the sectors made up 51.0 percent of the total in 2025, up 9.0 percentage points from five years earlier.
It stood far ahead of the country's overall elderly population ratio of 20.7 percent in 2025.
Two-member households remained the dominant type at 53.8 percent, while single-person households climbed 7.2 percentage points to 27.2 percent over the past five years. ■
