South Korea is seeing a surprising rebound in the number of farming, forestry and fishing households, with the total reaching 1.27 million in 2025—an increase of 210,000 from five years earlier.
But behind the rise is a striking demographic shift: rural communities are getting older while the amount of farmland managed by each farming household continues to shrink.
The farming, forestry and fishing population reached 2.57 million in 2025, representing about 5 percent of South Korea’s total population and an increase of 191,000 from 2020.
Yet the age profile reveals a major challenge. People aged 65 and older accounted for 51 percent of the farming and fishing population—9 percentage points higher than five years earlier.
At the same time, the average cultivated area per farming household dropped to just 0.87 hectares, down 0.2 hectares from 2020. It was the lowest level recorded since 1960, when the figure stood at 0.82 hectares.
A statistics official attributed the decline in cultivated area to the aging population.
The figures point to a complicated transformation in South Korea’s countryside. More households are being counted in farming and rural areas, but that does not necessarily mean larger or more productive farms.
Separate rural research also points to smaller households and population changes in farming and fishing villages, with older residents increasingly living alone while younger people continue to leave some rural communities.
Income remains another important part of the picture. In 2025, 12.4 percent of farming households generated more than 30 million won in sales from agriculture and livestock farming. Among fishing households, the comparable figure was 27.7 percent.
South Korea’s rural landscape is therefore undergoing two changes at once: the number of households is rising, while farms are becoming smaller and the population is aging.
The rebound may look encouraging at first glance—but the deeper statistics raise a bigger question about who will farm South Korea’s land in the years ahead.
WWC ONE MEDIA G,A
