Nearly 10 Million Koreans Live Alone

Korea's population shrank to 51.44 million last year after peaking at 51.85 million in 2019.

The population of Seoul already fell below 10 million in 2016 and stood at 9.42 million last year, according to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. Around 81,076 people left the capital last year, the biggest drop among all cities in Korea.

But on the whole the population decline was due to the aging population and low birthrate. Korea's birthrate fell from 1.3 children per woman in 2012 to 0.78 last year, while the average age rose from 43.7 in 2021 to 44.2.

That means people born in 1971, an auspicious year in the Chinese zodiac when many people had babies, accounted for the biggest share of the country's population for the sixth year running with 930,911. Next were people born in 1968 (911,148) and 1967 (910,099).

But the number of households increased one percent last year to 23.71 million because more and more Koreans live alone. The number of one-person households rose from 9.46 million in 2021 to 9.72 million and is expected to reach 10 million next year.