KOREA: Number of Solitary Elders Increasing

. SOEUL, Korea / The Korea Times / October 8, 2007 Nearly 92 percent of solitary elders have children and siblings, the Ministry of Health & Welfare announced Monday. The ministry reported that half the elders, who take part in economic activities, are living alone and they earn an average of 254,000 won. Moreover, 62 percent of them earn less than 300,000 won and 73 percent of them said they have financial difficulties. It is the first time the government has surveyed solitary elders. The ministry has a plan to hire a number of assistants for live-alone elders and reflect the survey results in its welfare plan. A total of 883,378 solitary elders aged over 65 participated in the survey and answered six questions regarding health, family, financial status and social relationship. Among them, only eight percent have no siblings, children and grandchildren, indicating more elders suffer from loneliness. Moreover, 15 percent of them don't keep in touch with their family and 31 percent of them don’t even contact their friends. Nearly 85 percent of the lonely elders answered they don’t get help from local and district welfare centers, demanding the government to take more concern on them. The average age of surveyed elders was 75.1 and 55 percent of them are in their 70s. About 84 percent are female. As Korean society is rapidly aging, the ministry plans to introduce more welfare programs for elders in need. As part of the plan, the ministry will send living assistants to about 140,000 solitary elders across the country on a regular basis. "While we set up more welfare service systems for elders, we will encourage local communities to take care of live-alone elders," the ministry official said. According to the United Nations, Korea is expected to be the world’s most aged society by 2050. Currently, about 1.4 percent of Koreans are those aged 80 or over and the figure is estimated to reach 15 percent by 2050, which overtakes OECD countries’ average, 9.4 percent. By Kang Shin-who Staff Reporter Copyright. The Korea Times Co.