At a glance:

• In 2018, 37% of South Korea’s population was aged over 50. By 2035 that is set to increase to 51% – more than half of the population.
• By 2035, it is estimated that more than 6 in 10 South Korean employees could be aged 50 and over.
• In South Korea, people aged 65 and over spend (on average) 50% more time volunteering than people of other ages.

We’ve become accustomed to ageing populations being presented as a bad thing. But far from being a cost or drain on public resources, older people’s social and economic impact is significant.

But it could be much higher if we remove avoidable barriers to working, spending, caring and volunteering, with the most important being poor health.

We know that countries that invest more in health see more people working, spending and volunteering and that investment in prevention drives a return. Spending just 0.1 percentage points more on preventative health can unlock an additional 9% in spending by older consumers and an average of 10 additional hours of volunteering across the G20.

In this report, we highlight the economic contributions of older people in South Korea today and what more could be done to unlock a longevity dividend over the years to come, which could be instrumental in the post-COVID recovery.

To achieve this, we call on the Government of South Korea to adopt an Ageing Society New Deal that sees spend on prevention raised to 6% of health budgets, alongside greater support for older people’s paid and unpaid contributions.