Signal Korea and Japan rank among the longest-lived populations in the OECD

Summary

Korea and Japan are now among the countries whose people live the longest in the world. In 2022 life expectancy reached 83.5 years in Korea and 84.7 years in Japan, well above the OECD average of 80.5 years. High life expectancy increases the share of long-lived older people and so ages the population as a whole. The report stresses, however, that fertility influences population ageing even more strongly than longevity. When fewer births bring new people into the population, the share of young people shrinks over time and the elderly share rises sharply. The two countries combine the longest life spans with the lowest fertility, so ageing pressure builds from both directions.