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Data Ministry, UN to host symposium on aging population

Published: 02 Dec. 2025, 16:04 Updated: 02 Dec. 2025, 17:30

A nurse looks after newborns at a hospital in Seoul on Feb. 28, 2024. [YONHAP]

The statistics agency said on Tuesday that it will hold an international symposium in Seoul, jointly organized with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), to discuss low birthrates, the aging population and corresponding responses.

The two-day forum, which runs through Wednesday, will bring together some 70 experts and officials from international organizations, academia and the private sector to exchange views and explore ways to promote older adults' social participation and address related issues, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics.

The program will feature sessions on various definitions of support for older adults, the role of technology in an aging society and a range of policy approaches to population aging.

“The symposium is expected to help present practical and effective policy responses to prevent an 'aging tsunami' and serve as an opportunity to strengthen international solidarity and cooperation in addressing pressing demographic challenges,” Statistics Minister Ahn Hyung-jun said.

Korea has long grappled with a chronically low birthrate, as many young people delay or forgo marriage and parenthood amid economic pressures and shifting social values.

The total fertility rate, or the average number of births expected per woman in her lifetime, stood at 0.75 in 2024, far below the 2.1 needed to maintain a stable population without immigration, government data showed.

During the first nine months of this year, however, 191,040 babies were born, up 12,488 from the same period last year, marking the largest on-year increase for the January to September period since 2007.

Yonhap