2007 Korean Key Findings – The New Old Age

• Fewer Koreans want to retire early
• Family devoted Koreans
• Self-reliance for Korean’s retirement

The HSBC Future of Retirement survey contains local findings for Korea that will reveal the collective feelings on ageing issues and retirement of Koreans.
A total of 1,000 adult Koreans aged between 40 and 79- a representative sample - were interviewed for this study and these key insights were drawn from their responses.

In Korea, for the local survey question of when people expect to retire from work, 75% of older Koreans expected to stay in the workforce as long as possible signaling a decline in the desire for early retirement. (40s, 50s, 60s, 70s responded 64, 72, 78, and 86 years old accordingly) It is higher than the national trend of 46%. However the actual portion of people in the work force is 55% of 50s, 33% of 60s, and only 12% of 70s implying the fact that Koreans retire earlier than expected.



The Korean's strong feeling to want to work longer is above the global standard.
However the reality does not fulfill their expectation as they do in fact retire earlier than expected.
This implies that they need to plan their retirement and be ready for it.

"People all over the world define themselves in terms of their families, and they feel responsible for the welfare of other members of their family."

- Dr. George Leeson / Oxford Institute of Ageing and Member of the HSBC Global Commission on Ageing and Retirement.

Financial support

Korean's proportion of providing financial and practical support to their family after their retirement ranks top globally. The global standard is 38% in 60s and 30% in 70s compared to 83% in 60s and 64% in 70s for Korea. It is far higher than other Asian countries, such as 17% in 60s and 9% in 70s for Japan and 20% in 60s and 11% in 70s for Hong Kong.
Overall, there is some gap between advanced economies and transitional economies in older people’s view of retirement life. Those in advanced countries have more positive attitude towards retirement and enjoy an active retirement life than those in transitional economies. In case of Korea, there is a gap with advanced economies in terms of social voluntary work, quality of life and health, and ranked top amongst 21 countries in all age cohorts in the questions of financial support and practical help to family.
This result reflects a strong family tie of Koreans, which can also be interpreted as Koreans preparing less for their retirement than those in advanced economies.

Practical support

As Korea is advancing into advanced economies, it is expected that Korean older people will be able to enjoy more active retirement as those in advanced economies do. It is just that Koreans should plan more strategically for their retirement as the actual retirement age is lower than the expected age and individuals should rely on themselves for their retirement.

With respect to financial support, self-reliance and family were the top two sources of retirement income with proportion of 3.5 and 3.1 out of scale 4 among 40-70s Korean respondents.

While they chosen family and government should be responsible for their financial security in retirement with proportion of 38% and 46%.