People walk past street stalls at Namdaemun Market in Seoul, South Korea, on June 20, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP)

SEOUL - South Korea's total population was expected to fall sharply for the next 50 years due to a chronically low birth rate and a rapidly aging population, statistical office data showed Thursday.

The total population was estimated to decline from 51.67 million in 2022 to 50.06 million in 2040, 42.30 million in 2060 and 36.22 million in 2072, according to Statistics Korea.

The population was forecast to record an annual falling rate of 0.16 percent for a decade starting in 2025, eventually leading to an annual fall of 1.31 percent in 2072.

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The number of newborns was forecast to slide from 250,000 in 2022 to 220,000 in 2025 and 160,000 in 2072, while the number of deaths was projected to increase from 360,000 in 2022 to 690,000 in 2072.

The proportion of the working-age population aged 15-64 to the total population was expected to drop from 71.1 percent in 2022 to 45.8 percent in 2072.

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The percentage of seniors aged 65 or higher to the total population was estimated to go up from 17.4 percent to 47.7 percent during the 50-year period.