SEJONG -- South Korea ranked third in women’s life expectancy at birth among the 37 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in its latest findings.

The OECD defined the life expectancy at birth as how long, on average, a newborn can expect to live if current death rates do not change. Korean female newborns are projected to live 85.7 years on average.

The figure is quite high compared to that of the US (81.1 years), Turkey (80.8), Hungary (79.3) and Mexico (77.9). Korea also outstripped Italy (85.2), Sweden (84.1), Canada (84), Greece (83.9), Germany (83.4) and the UK (83.1).

Only Japan (87.3) and Spain (86.1) posted higher than Korea in the expected life span for girls born in the late 2010s.

The OECD also included some nonmembers in the comparison. Brazilian girls are projected to live 79.3 years, followed by Chinese girls (78), Russian girls (77.6) Indonesian girls (71.6), Indian girls (70.4) and South African girls (67).
 

In contrast, Korea’s male newborns are anticipated to live just 79.7 years, which placed it middle of the pack at No. 15 among the 37 members.

Switzerland topped the list for men’s life expectancy at birth with 81.6 years, followed by Japan and Iceland (81.1), Norway (81), Sweden and Italy (80.8), Spain and Israel (80.6), Australia (80.5) and Ireland (80.4). The figure for the US stood at 76.1

According to Statistics Korea, the life expectancy for Koreans born in 2020 would reach 83.2 years -- 80.3 for men and 86.1 for women -- rising to 84.2 for those born in 2025.

After topping 85 in 2029, the figure would gradually climb to 86.8 in 2040, 88.2 in 2050, and 90 -- 88.4 for men and 91.6 for women -- in 2066, the state-run agency forecast.

Economists say that the social burden of caring for elderly people cannot but worsen in the coming years and decades.

The Korea Economic Research Institute forecast that the nation will see its gross domestic product drop by 0.97 percent every time the proportion of elderly people to the total population increases by 1 percentage point.

According to the Ministry of Interior and Safety, the number of Koreans aged 80 or over increased by more than 1 million over the past 10 years -- from 908,000 (1.8 percent of then-population) in May 2010 to 1.94 million (3.7 percent of the current population in May 2020.

As for all seniors -- those aged 65 or over -- the number came to 8.26 million (15.9 percent of the population) as of May 2020, compared to 5.36 million (10.8 percent) a decade earlier.

South Korea is projected to become one of eight superaged societies in the world by 2024, alongside the existing five -- Japan, Italy, Germany, Sweden and France -- and two other candidates like to ascend -- Canada and the UK.

A superaged (or post-aged or ultra-aged) society refers to a nation whose elderly population accounts for 20 percent or more of the entire population, according to a stipulation set by the United Nations.

During the May 2018 to May 2019 period, Korea saw the percentage of seniors in the population climb 0.6 percentage point from 14.5 percent to 15.1 percent.

And the figure jumped by 0.8 percentage point for the next year to 15.9 percent in May 2020, according to resident registration data held by the Interior Ministry.

There is a high possibility that the pace will further accelerate in terms of the seniors’ portion in the coming four years, as the nation is recording the world’s lowest fertility rates and among the steepest growth rates in life span around the globe.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)