SEOUL, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's proportion of the youth population has kept falling for the past decades amid an aging population and a chronically low birth rate, statistical ministry data showed Tuesday.
The number of youths aged 19-34 totaled 10,404,000 in 2024, accounting for 20.1 percent of the total population, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics.
The youth demographic's portion of the total population continued to decrease from 28.0 percent in 2000 to 22.9 percent in 2010 and 21.1 percent in 2020.
The unmarried rate for men aged 30-34 soared from 28.1 percent in 2000 to 74.7 percent in 2024, while the female unmarried rate of the same age group jumped from 10.7 percent to 58.0 percent.
The proportion of unmarried men aged 25-29 advanced from 71.0 percent to 95.0 percent in the cited period, while the percentage of single women of the age group jumped from 40.1 percent to 89.2 percent.
The rate of burnout experiences in the youth population, who felt mentally and physically exhausted, slipped to 32.2 percent in 2024 from 33.9 percent in 2022.
The suicide rate among the youth demographic stood at 24.4 per 100,000 people in 2024, keeping an upward trend for the second straight year from 22.0 in 2022.
For the 15-29 age group, the employment rate was 43.7 percent for men and 48.4 percent for women each in 2024, while the hiring rate in the 30-34 age group was 86.6 percent for men and 73.5 percent for women.
After peaking at 25.1 percent in 2020, the expanded jobless rate for those aged 15-29 continued to decline to 23.1 percent in 2021, 19.0 percent in 2022, 16.6 precent in 2023 and 15.6 percent in 2024.
The expanded unemployment rate refers to the proportion of those working less than 36 hours a week who wished to work additional hours, who were not available during the job-survey period, and who were not actively seeking a job but were available for work. ■
