Number of farmers, fishermen continues to fall in S. Korea

All News 12:00 April 14, 2017

SEJONG, April 14 (Yonhap) -- The number of South Koreans in the agrofisheries sector continued to decrease amid a rapid aging and urbanization trend in the country, government data showed Friday.

Households engaging in the farming business totaled 1.07 million last year, down 1.9 percent from 1.09 million tallied a year ago, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.

The number of farmers also dropped 2.8 percent on-year to 2.5 million.

In the fishing sector, the number of families fell 2.9 percent on-year to 53,000 last year, with the population retreating 2.1 percent to 126,000.

The families involved in the agriculture sector accounted for 5.5 percent of the country's total households in 2016, down from the previous year's 5.7 percent.

The statistics office attributed the drop mainly to the rapid aging of the population, with the younger generation moving to urban areas.

The average age of the head of farming families reached 66.3 last year, up from 65.6 in 2015.

Those aged 65 or over accounted for 40.3 percent of the farming community, compared with 13.2 percent of South Korea's entire population.