South Koreans just became a year or two younger as country scraps traditional age counting rule

In December last year, the country passed laws to fully adopt the international standard.

South Koreans on Wednesday became a year or two younger as the country fully adopted the international rule for calculating age. The country outlawed traditional way of counting age which considers a person a year old at birth and adds a year every January 1.

Lee Jung-hee, poses with a whiteboard showing her international age, 58, and Korean age, 59. (AFP)

Since the early 1960s, South Korea is using the international norm for age calculation for medical and legal documents. But many South Koreans continued to use the traditional method for everything else, reported Reuters.

President Yoon Suk-yeol pushed strongly for the change when he ran for office last year, reported the BBC. The traditional age-counting methods created “unnecessary social and economic costs,” he said.

In December last year, the country passed laws to fully adopt the international standard.

“We expect legal disputes, complaints, and social confusion that have been caused over how to calculate ages will be greatly reduced,” minister of government legislation Lee Wan-kyu said Monday.

According to a government survey conducted in September 2022, 86% of South Koreans said they would use the international age in their everyday life when the new laws took effect.

As of June 28, 2023, a person born on June 29, 2003 is 19 under the international system, 20 under the "counting age" system, and 21 under the "Korean age" system.

(With agency inputs)