South Koreans become younger under new age-counting law

New laws rolled out across South Korea mean the country’s citizens have become either a year or two younger. The new law aligns the nation’s two traditional age-counting methods with international standards. 

The law scraps one traditional system that deemed South Koreans one-year-old at birth, counting time in the womb. Another system counted everyone as ageing by a year on the first day of January – instead of their birthday. 

As of Wednesday, South Korea has switched to age-counting based on birth date. 

President Yoon Suk-yeol has been vocal about the change saying traditional age-counting methods created “unnecessary social and economic costs.” These issues include disputes over insurance pay-outs and determining eligibility for government assistance programmes. 

The “Korean age” system means a person turns one year old at birth and gains a year on 1 January every year – instead of their actual date of birth. This means a baby born on 31 December will officially be two years old the next day.

A separate “counting age” system – where a baby is zero at birth and ads a year every 1 January, has also been used in the country. 

South Korean lawmakers voted to scrap the traditional counting methods last December.