Two in five, and one in twenty-four
In 2025, 40.7% of South Koreans aged 65 or over were in work, and 4.2% of the French. Of the 160 economies that report the figure since 2019, South Korea ranks 33rd and France 155th. The table sets them among the other economies this desk publishes in, every figure read from the same series.
The spread is wide at both ends. The median economy employs 21.8% of its people aged 65 or over; in 21 of the 160 at least half of them are in work, and in 10 fewer than one in twenty. The highest figure is Mozambique’s, 70.6%, and the lowest Romania’s, 2.1%. Among the seventeen in the table, Indonesia is at 47.0%, the Philippines at 35.0% and Japan at 26.1%, while Germany is at 10.2% and Spain at 4.2%.
What makes the pair worth setting side by side is what they share. South Korea’s income per person, 63,125 dollars, is almost exactly France’s, 63,975, and a child born in either can expect to live about 83 years. Whatever separates them at 65, it is not how rich they are or how long their people live.
| Economy | Year | 65 and over, % in work | Women | Men | 55 to 64 | Rank of 160 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indonesia | 2023 | 47.0% | 34.7% | 60.7% | 70.1% | 27 |
| South Korea | 2025 | 40.7% | 34.1% | 49.0% | 71.9% | 33 |
| Philippines | 2024 | 35.0% | 27.8% | 44.2% | 66.7% | 45 |
| Vietnam | 2024 | 33.6% | 30.5% | 38.0% | 71.5% | 47 |
| India | 2025 | 26.2% | 12.1% | 40.7% | 56.8% | 67 |
| Thailand | 2025 | 26.2% | 19.5% | 36.2% | 68.8% | 68 |
| Japan | 2025 | 26.1% | 19.6% | 34.5% | 79.7% | 70 |
| United States | 2025 | 18.5% | 15.2% | 22.3% | 64.7% | 89 |
| United Kingdom | 2025 | 12.8% | 10.3% | 15.6% | 66.4% | 113 |
| Egypt | 2024 | 12.5% | 6.0% | 18.5% | 40.7% | 114 |
| Türkiye | 2025 | 12.5% | 6.1% | 20.4% | 38.2% | 115 |
| Germany | 2025 | 10.2% | 7.9% | 13.1% | 75.3% | 124 |
| Portugal | 2025 | 9.3% | 6.9% | 12.3% | 69.5% | 128 |
| Poland | 2025 | 6.9% | 4.9% | 9.7% | 60.6% | 141 |
| Italy | 2025 | 6.1% | 3.9% | 8.8% | 61.2% | 148 |
| Spain | 2025 | 4.2% | 3.5% | 5.2% | 62.4% | 154 |
| France | 2025 | 4.2% | 3.4% | 5.2% | 61.7% | 155 |
The split comes at 65
Income sorts the rate after 65. Across the 159 economies with an income figure, the share of people aged 65 or over in work correlates at minus 0.62 with the log of income per person, and the median runs from 38.2% in the poorest third to 21.7% in the middle and 12.8% in the richest.
The same surveys say something else ten years earlier. The employment rate at 55 to 64 correlates at minus 0.02 with income, which is to say not at all, and the poorest and the richest thirds employ the same share of that age group: 66.4% at the median of each. The middle third sits at 60.4%. The economies part at 65, not before.
One ratio carries the divergence: the rate at 65 or over as a fraction of the rate at 55 to 64 in the same country and year. The median economy of the poorest third keeps 60% of its 55-to-64 rate past 65, the middle third 36%, the richest 19%. South Korea keeps 57%, close to the poorest third’s median, from inside the richest; France keeps 7%.
- THE DENOMINATOR IS EVERYONE AGED 65 OR OVER. Not the labour force: a 75-year-old who does not work is counted below the line like any other. This is not an unemployment rate, and it says nothing about who is looking for a job.
- ONE HOUR COUNTS. The ILO counts as employed anyone who did at least one hour of work for pay or profit in the reference week, in a job, a business of their own or a family business. The rate says who works, not how much, in what kind of job, or whether formally.
- THE GROUP IS OPEN-ENDED. Sixty-five or over includes the very old, and where people live longer the group is older on average and its rate lower by construction. South Koreans and the French live about as long, 83.6 and 83.0 years at birth, so the pair does not set a young old age against an old one; across the 160, the rate falls with life expectancy nearly as steeply as with income, and nothing here separates the two.
South Korea’s 40.7% therefore does not say that two older Koreans in five need to work, nor that they work full time: it says that in 2025, 40.7 of every hundred South Koreans aged 65 or over did at least an hour of paid work in the survey week. France’s 4.2% is the same count, taken the same way.
One rate, one age group, and a reading that forgets who sits in the denominator claims what the source does not say.
What income does not decide
Income sorts the averages. It does not decide the pair, and it does not decide the richest third, where South Korea ranks second of 53 economies and France 51st. Japan employs 26.1% of its people aged 65 or over and Germany 10.2%; the United States 18.5% and Italy 6.1%.
Across the same 159 economies, income works the other way at prime age. The employment rate at 25 to 54 correlates at plus 0.38 with income per person: richer economies employ more of their adults in mid-career, about the same share of those aged 55 to 64, and fewer of those past 65. The relationship changes sign with age.
The rate differs by sex almost everywhere. Men aged 65 or over are more often in work than women in 158 of the 160 economies, by a median of 12.1 points. In South Korea the figures are 49.0% for men and 34.1% for women; in France, 5.2% and 3.4%.
What the rate does not say
It does not say who wants to work. A 70-year-old counted as not in work may be retired by choice, caring for someone or looking for a job; the rate puts all three below the same line and says nothing about which. Nothing here measures motive, need or satisfaction.
It does not say anything about pensions. Retirement ages, pension rules and savings sit behind the figure in every country, and none of them is measured here. The piece names no cause for the split at 65.
And it does not say how much anyone works or in what job. One paid hour in the survey week counts, so a market stall kept two mornings a week and a full-time contract are the same entry. Each economy appears once, in its own latest year: nothing here says a rate rose or fell.
What the data establishes
- In 2025, 40.7% of South Koreans aged 65 or over were in work and 4.2% of the French, 33rd and 155th of 160 economies, in two economies with almost the same income per person and life expectancy.
- Across the 160, the median rate at 65 or over is 21.8%; 21 economies are at 50% or more and 10 under 5%.
- The rate at 65 or over correlates at minus 0.62 with log income per person, with medians of 38.2%, 21.7% and 12.8% from the poorest third to the richest; the rate at 55 to 64 correlates at minus 0.02, and the poorest and the richest thirds share a median of 66.4%.
- Men aged 65 or over are more often in work than women in 158 of the 160 economies, by a median of 12.1 points.
What it does not
- Why anyone aged 65 or over works or does not. Motive, need and choice are not measured; a person not in work may be retired, caring for someone or looking for a job.
- Anything about pensions, retirement ages or savings. None is measured here, and the piece names no cause for the split at 65.
- How much older people work or in what jobs. One paid hour in the survey week counts, so part-time, informal and family work count the same as a full-time contract.
- That older workers take jobs from younger ones. Nothing here measures what one age group’s work does to another’s.
- Any trend. One year per economy, with different years and instruments between them: nothing here says a rate rose or fell. Nothing is said about China, which reports no year in this window with these ages, or about Cabo Verde, Curaçao and Ukraine, whose definitions differ.
Method
- One measure. ILOSTAT DF_EMP_DWAP_SEX_AGE_RT, the employment-to-population ratio by sex and age, read through the ILO’s SDMX API on 21 September 2026. For each economy the latest year from 2019 to 2025 is used, and the figures for ages 65 and over (all, women, men), 55 to 64 and 25 to 54 come from the SAME year AND the same reported source. Employed means at least one hour of work for pay or profit in the reference week, under the ILO’s current definition.
- AGGREGATES ARE NOT COUNTRIES, AND THREE ROWS ARE NOT THE SAME MEASURE. Regions and income groups were removed by keeping only codes on the World Bank’s country list. Cabo Verde and Curaçao count subsistence workers as employed, and Ukraine’s oldest group starts at 60, so all three are excluded and named here rather than ranked. That leaves 160 economies: 84 whose latest year is 2025, 26 with 2024, 14 with 2023, 15 with 2022, 8 with 2021, 7 with 2020 and 6 with 2019. China reports no year in the window with these ages, so the table holds every other market this desk publishes in, with Egypt for Arabic, plus the United States and Italy.
- THE INSTRUMENTS DIFFER. 128 of the 160 figures come from a labour force survey, 17 from a household income and expenditure survey, 9 from another household survey, 5 from a population census and 1 from administrative records. Nine carry a break-in-series flag, the United States and Egypt among them; a break matters when one year is set against another, and nothing here does that.
- The median of 160 values is the average of the 80th and the 81st, 21.745% and 21.924%, shown as 21.8%. 21 economies are at 50% or more, 72 at 25% or more, 36 under 10% and 10 under 5%. South Korea’s figure is 40.744% and France’s 4.162%, a ratio of 9.8; at 55 to 64 they are 71.868% and 61.741%, a ratio of 1.2.
- The correlations are Pearson coefficients over the 159 economies with a World Bank income figure (NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD, latest year; New Caledonia has none), taken against the natural log of GDP per person at purchasing power parity. The income thirds hold 53 economies each: the poorest below 12,000 dollars a head, the richest above 37,700. Each third’s figure is the median of its members. Across the 160, the rate at 65 or over also correlates at minus 0.61 with life expectancy at birth (World Bank SP.DYN.LE00.IN, 2024), which itself rises with income, so part of the income slope may be the age mix inside the group; nothing here separates the two. South Korea’s income per person is 63,125 dollars and France’s 63,975; life expectancy at birth is 83.6 and 83.0 years.
- Rounding is done once, at display, from figures the source serves to three decimals: Indonesia 46.992%, the Philippines 34.959%, Japan 26.050%, the United States 18.453%, Germany 10.220%, Spain 4.233%. The share kept past 65 is the rate at 65 or over divided by the rate at 55 to 64 for the same country and year, computed at full precision and rounded once.
Primary sources
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