South Korea's total population amounted to 48.58 million in 2010, up 2.8 percent, or 1.30 million, from five years earlier, a national census showed Monday.
The census carried out every five years showed the country's population grew an average of 0.5 percent annually from 2005 through 2010, Statistical Korea said. In 2005, the population came to 47.28 million.
The annual gain was unchanged from 0.5 percent average growth reported from 1990 onwards, the agency said.
The latest findings showed the country's population density that stood at 486 people living within one square-kilometer radius, was the
third highest in the world after Bangladesh and Taiwan. Urbanization hit 82.0 percent, a gain from 81.5 percent reported five years earlier.
The statistical office said the capital city of Seoul, and nearby Incheon and Gyeonggi Province was home to 49.1 percent of the total population, a gain from 48.2 percent tallied five years ago.
Gyeonggi accounted for 23.4 percent of the population, followed by Seoul with 20.2 percent of all people living in the country. The port
city of Busan, on the country's southeastern tip, was home to 7.0 percent of the population.
The report said that the number of people over 65 reached a little over 5.42 million, with 11.3 percent of the population being classified as senior citizens. The median age of the population hit 38.1 years up 3.1 years from 2005.
The statistics office said 29.2 percent of all people in their 30s were not married. This is a gain of 7.6 percentage points from five years earlier.
Of all 590,000 foreign nationals living in the country, 63.9 percent lived in Seoul or in nearby areas, with 52.7 percent being made up of ethnic Chinese or people of Korean descent.