South Korea's population, predicted for decades, has begun to decline over the past year as the number of births has been declining.
According to the Ministry of Interior and Security, as of December 31 last year, the population had recorded a deficit of 51,829,000, a decrease of about 20,800 over the previous year. Births fell 10.65 percent to 276,000, while deaths rose 3.1 percent to 308,000. In South Korea, people aged 60 and over accounted for 24% of the population last year.
