South Korea’s old-age dependency ratio is forecast to rise to some 80 individuals aged 65 and over for every 100 persons of working age (20-64) by year 2075, according to the OECD’s biennial “Pensions at a Glance” report. 

The ratio is expected to reach 78.8 by 2075, up from just 6.3 in 1950, making South Korea the OECD’s demographically oldest country. This means that in 2075, 1.25 working-age people would be financially responsible for one senior citizen.

With prolonged increases in life expectancy, OECD countries have seen an increasing number of older people over the past decades, but the pattern is most evident in South Korea, the report added, where the fertility rate remains the lowest in the world.

Japan comes second only to South Korea in the dependency ratio, whose ratio is expected to reach 76 by 2075. Portugal and Greece came next with the ratio of 75 and 73 respectively.

The OECD average old-age dependency ratio was 27.9 in 2015 will likely increase to 58.6 by 2075.

Despite an increasing number of elderly people, South Korea spends 2.6 percent of its gross domestic product on public pensions, the report shows.

By Bak Se-hwan (sh@heraldcorp.com)