SEOUL, March 31 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's total population was expected to fall 29.9 percent by 2072 amid rapidly aging population and chronically low birth rate, statistical ministry data showed Tuesday.
The total population was forecast to go down from 51.68 million in 2025 to 36.22 million in 2072, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics.
The proportion of those aged 65 and older to the total population was predicted to soar from 20.3 percent in 2025 to 47.7 percent in 2072.
Of the total, the proportion of those aged 14 and younger was projected to slide from 10.2 percent to 6.6 percent in the cited period.
The number of households totaled 23 million in 2024, up from 22.73 million in the previous year.
The average number of family members per household stood unchanged at 2.2 in 2024 compared to the prior year, but the number had been on the decline from 3.1 in 2000 to 2.7 in 2010 and 2.4 in 2019.
Of the total households, the proportion of single-member households increased to 36.1 percent in 2024 from 35.5 percent in the previous year.
The proportion of two-person households advanced from 28.8 percent to 29.0 percent, but the percentage of three-person households declined from 19.0 percent to 18.8 percent in the cited period.
The country's life expectancy was 83.7 years in 2024, up 0.2 years from the previous year.
It was 2.6 years higher than an average of 81.1 years among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). ■