Issue Compound health crisis from low fertility, ageing, chronic disease and endemic infection

Summary

KISTEP chose the realisation of a healthy society as its 2026 theme because Korea faces several overlapping health pressures at once. Low fertility, population ageing, rising chronic disease and the normalisation of infectious disease are adding to the burden of medical costs and fuelling concern about social sustainability. The report treats ageing, chronic disease, climate and environmental change, care burdens and medical and welfare costs as one interconnected set of social problems. It argues that these call for responses at the level of social systems rather than through individual technologies alone. The theme envisions a society in which every citizen can understand and actively improve their physical, mental and social health across the life course and cope better with changing health threats.