The number of people aged 100 and older has grown rapidly in South Korea, one of the fastest-aging societies in the world, government data showed.

According to 2015 population census report released by Statistics Korea on Monday, the number of centenarians, or people who are aged 100 and older, reached 3,159 persons as of November last year, a 72.2 percent increase, or 1,324 more from 1,835 in 2010.

The 100-and-older population doubled to nearly 2,000 in 2010 from 961 in 2005 and exceeded 3,000 in 2015. By gender, 86.5 percent of the centenarians, or 2,731 persons, were females.

For every 100,000 persons, there were 6.6 centenarians in 2015, rising sharply from 3.8 in 2010 and 2.0 in 2005. Of people aged 95 and older, 18.5 percent lived to celebrate the 100th birthday last year, up 1.9 percentage points from the previous population census released five years ago.

Centenarians who live with other family members accounted for 44.6 percent of the total number of centenarian population, falling by 12.5 percentage points from 57.1 percent in 2010. Instead, those who stay at nursing homes sharply increased to 43.1 percent from 19.2 percent during the cited period.

Data also showed 80.5 percent of centenarians received financial supports including living expenses and medical payments from their children or relatives while 60.4 percent benefited from the governmental supports.

On average, centenarians visited hospitals and other medical related facilities 1.4 times per month.

Korea is also one of the fast-aging counties, according to another data released by the Statistics Korea last year. The population of 65 years old or older accounted for 13.1 percent of the country’s total population in 2015, up 4.5 times from 1960 when the corresponding share was 2.9 percent. The share is forecast to jump to 40.1 percent in Korea by 2060 while the corresponding share of a total global population is projected to grow from 8.2 percent in 2015 to 17.6 percent in 2060, it added.

By Kim Gyu-sik

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