Day care centers plummet, senior facilities soar amid demographic shift

Day care centers declined by nearly 2,000 in 2023, while facilities for seniors increased by more than 3,000, reflecting Korea’s continued aging society, data showed Thursday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the number of day care centers fell by 1,969, from 30,923 in 2022 to 28,954 last year. The overall decrease was mainly driven by declining private and family day care centers.

Private day care centers decreased by 840 from 9,726 to 8,886, while family day care centers dropped by 1,417 from 12,109 to 10,692. The number of public day care centers increased slightly from 5,801 to 6,187.

The trend of declining day care centers is not new, mirroring the nation’s low birthrate.

Over the past four years, day care centers plunged by 22.5 percent, or 8,417, from 37,371 in 2019 to 28,954 in 2023.

The main reason for the shrinking day care business is a 25.9 percent decline in the number of children attending, having decreased by 353,272, from 1.37 million to 1.01 million.

The data also revealed that nearly 600 locales in Korea lacked day care centers, most of which were located in rural areas.

Among 28,954 local governments, 2.1 percent, or 597, lacked a single day care center.

Most of these — 537 of them — were in rural areas, with only 60 in cities.

A more detailed breakdown shows that the Gyeongsang and Jeolla provinces had the highest number of local governments without day care centers. North Gyeongsang Province had 112, South Gyeongsang Province had 109, South Jeolla Province had 101 and North Jeolla Province had 81.

Gyeonggi Province had a relatively small number of 17, while Seoul had only four.

This contrasts with facilities for seniors, which are on an upward trajectory as demand increases.

The number of senior welfare facilities, including senior welfare centers and nursing homes, increased by 3,358 from 89,698 in 2022 to 93,056 last year.

The number also rose from 79,382 in 2019 to 93,056 in 2023, an increase of 17.2 percent, or 13,674, over the past four years.

The data showed that the number of people aged 65 or older was 9.86 million at the end of last year, a 22.8 percent increase from 8.03 million at the end of 2019. This number is estimated to have surpassed 10 million as of July 10.