SEOUL– North Korea’s population is steadily aging, with the number of people aged 65 years and older accounting for 9.75 percent this year, up 0.1 percentage point from last year, recent U.S. government data showed.
North Korea’s total fertility rate — the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime — also fell to 1.91 this year from 1.92 the previous year, according to the World Factbook of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
The North’s fertility was 128th among 227 countries for which data was available.
The number of North Koreans aged 65 years and older also stood at nearly 2.52 million this year out of the total population of 25.8 million as of July this year.
The North came in 162th among 227 countries this year in terms of life expectancy with an average of 71.65 years.
The typical North Korean male born this year is expected to live 67.79 years, while the average female can expect to live 75.74 years, the data showed.
Source: Yonhap News Agency