SEJONG -- The number of seniors living alone has surged nearly 36 percent over the last five years amid the country's rapid population aging, data showed Monday.

A total of 1.66 million South Koreans aged 65 and older lived by themselves in 2020, up 35.8 percent from five years earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea.

The number accounted for 21.2 percent of local household members aged 65 and older, which numbered 7.85 million last year.

In particular, the number of seniors living alone aged 80 and older spiked 50.2 percent over the cited period to 470,000 last year.

The jump in the number of seniors living by themselves in Asia's fourth-largest economy comes amid its fast population aging.

South Korea is widely forecast to become a super-aged society in 2025, in which the proportion of those aged 65 and older will hit 20 percent of the total population. The country became an aged society in 2017 as the proportion of such people topped 14 percent. (Yonhap)