SEOUL, July 27 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's population fell for the second consecutive year in 2022 on the chronically low birthrate and the rapidly aging population, statistical office data showed Thursday.
The country's population totaled 51,692,000 in November last year, down 0.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the 2022 census by Statistics Korea. It slipped 0.2 percent in 2021.
The population kept sliding for the second straight year for the first time since relevant data began to be compiled in 1949.
The number of South Korean nationals dwindled 0.3 percent to 49,940,000, but the number of foreigners living here for over three months increased 6.2 percent to 1,752,000 last year.
The working age population, or those aged 15-64, reduced 0.7 percent to 36,686,000 last year.
The elderly population aged 65 or older expanded 5.1 percent to 9,146,000 in 2022, but the number of those aged 14 or younger retreated 3.7 percent to 5,860,000.
South Korea has suffered from the chronically low birthrate and the rapidly aging population as the younger people refrained from getting married and having babies on the back of economic difficulties such as high housing prices, stubborn youth unemployment and high costs to raise babies. ■