South Korea: 1.7 times as many people aged 80+ as children under 5
on 1 July 2023
In 1950 there were 46 children under 5 for every person aged 80+. The over-80s outnumbered the under-5s in 2020.
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Two head counts of the same country: people who have reached 80 and children not yet five, both UN estimates for 1 July.
Blue is the card’s first number, orange the second; they share one scale. The ring marks where the lines crossed; the gap after it is shaded. The large numbers are the latest year both lines share.
- People aged 80 and over thousand persons, 1 July
69 (1950) → 2,338 (2023)
- Children under 5 thousand persons, 1 July
3,190 (1950) → 1,358 (2023)
Only years where both series are published; gaps are not filled. An overtaking counts if the new leader was behind at the start and ahead in no more than a fifth of the years before it, and it leads in the latest shared year and in at least two shared years in a row. A short dip of up to two years does not end a lead and is named; if the leader was ahead once before, that year is named too. Size thresholds pick a story and do not show that one causes the other.
Five-year age groups from World Population Prospects 2024, added up unchanged. The number of people over 80 grows with longevity and with the size of the generations born 80 years earlier.
A question for this picture
How many nursery teachers and how many carers will this country need in ten years?