Average age of farmers, fishers rises 3.3 yrs in 2015

South Korea's agrofisheries sector has been getting older rapidly amid the low birthrate and urbanization, statistics data showed Monday.

The average age of South Korean farmers and fishers who head households were 65.3 years old on average in 2015, up 3.3 years from 62 years old tallied five years earlier, according to the latest census data compiled by Statistics Korea.

The percentage of those aged 65 years and over reached 37.8 percent last year, much higher than the 13.2 percent in the total population.

The statistics agency said coupled with the nationwide aging trend, the younger generation heading to cities contributed to the rapid aging in the rural area.

South Korea's median age of the entire population hit 41.2 years, up from 38.2 five years earlier, topping 40 years for the first time.

Households engaging in the farming and fishing businesses totaled 1.24 million last year, down 7.9 percent from 1.34 million in 2010.

The number of farmers and fishermen also dropped 16.4 percent to 2.92 million from 3.5 million over the five-year period.

Families involved in the agrofisheries sector accounted for 6.5 percent of the country's total households in 2015, down from 7.7 percent five years ago. (Yonhap)