FROM THE ROAD.

South Korea changes way of counting age: people could be up to two years younger

Incredible but true, said in 2023, South Korea has officially changed the way it calculates the age of its citizens, opening up a revolution that will therefore rewrite the age of millions of people in the country. Still tied to the old traditional system of counting, which did not work on the basis of the 365 days of the Earth's rotation on its axis, Koreans all of a sudden found themselves (as of 28 June 2023, but the measure had already been voted and approved in December 2022) a few years younger.

This revolution was one of President Yoon Suk-yeol's campaign planks. However, traces of the old system will remain, to better regulate the start of school age, military service and the possibility of drinking alcohol.

By travel oriented - Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41839161
South Korea changes system for calculating retirement age
Incredible but true, said in 2023, South Korea has officially changed the way it calculates the age of its citizens, opening up a revolution that will therefore rewrite the age of millions of people in the country. Still tied to the old traditional system of counting, which did not work on the basis of the 365 days of the Earth's rotation on its axis, Koreans all of a sudden found themselves (as of 28 June 2023, but the measure had already been voted and approved in December 2022) a few years younger.
By Korea.net / Korean Culture and Information Service (Photographer name), CC BY-SA 2.0, https://com
South Koreans will have one to two years less
It then switched to the international system, which counts the first year of age after the first 365 days of birth. In South Korea, however, the traditional Korean system was still in force, which recognised the first year of age at birth. As a result, South Koreans will from now on find themselves one but up to two years younger on their personal documents.
By Korea.net / Korean Culture and Information Service (Photographer name), CC BY-SA 2.0, https://com
How the traditional Korean system worked
The old South Korean system stipulated that the child would be one year old at the time of birth, and that years would be completed every 1 January. Taking an example, a child born on 20 July 2022 would therefore already be one year old, and would turn two years old on 1 January 2023.
Pixabay
President Yoon Suk-yeol's revolution
This revolution was one of the campaign staples of President Yoon Suk-yeol, which was approved by the government in December 2022 and came into force on 28 June 2023
Getty Images
Something of the old system will be retained
Traces of the old system will remain, however, in order to regulate the start of school age, the age of military service and the possibility of drinking alcohol in a simpler way, and above all not to disrupt it.
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