S. Korea Farm Households Surpass 1M

(MENAFN) South Korea's farming population has staged a surprising comeback, with the number of agricultural households climbing back above the 1 million mark last year after two consecutive years of historic lows, the Ministry of Data and Statistics reported Tuesday.

Farm families numbered 1,242,000 as of December 2025 — a sharp recovery from 974,000 in 2024 and 999,000 in 2023, the year the figure first plunged below 1 million since national records began in 1949.

The rebound marks a potential turning point for a sector long battered by what analysts have described as a rural extinction crisis — a decades-long decline driven by rapid urbanization and an aging population that accelerated sharply from the 1970s onward, steadily draining the countryside of its workforce.

Structural barriers have long deterred younger generations from entering agriculture. Prohibitively high costs for farmland and equipment, compounded by persistent doubts over profitability, have kept the industry's demographic profile heavily skewed toward older citizens.

That imbalance remains stark. Of all farming household members, those aged 70 and above account for the largest share at 34.5 percent, followed by those in their 60s at 30.9 percent and those in their 50s at 15.7 percent — meaning roughly eight in ten farmers are over the age of 50.

Whether the 2025 rebound reflects a structural shift or a temporary fluctuation will be closely watched by policymakers grappling with long-term food security and rural sustainability concerns.

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