SKorea to start population slide in 2018 - report

SEOUL, Nov 21 (Reuters) South Korea's population will peak at 49.3 million in 2018 and then start to decline due to the country's low birth rate, a government report said today.

South Korea, with a current population of just more than 48 million, already has the lowest birth rate in the developed world, with an average of 1.08 children per woman.

By 2018, about 14 per cent of the population will be 65 years old or older, the National Statistical Office said in a report.

''It seems South Korea is rapidly becoming an ageing society at a much faster rate than other developed countries,'' the report said.

By 2050, an expected 230,000 babies will be born in South Korea, which is half the number born in 2005, it said.

REUTERS SB RAI1219