South Koreans are now officially a year or two younger, thanks to a new law that synchronizes the country's traditional age calculation techniques with international norms.
The legislation abandons an age-old system which classified newborns as being one year old, factoring in prenatal time.
A separate system, which added a year to everyone's age on the first day of the year, irrespective of their actual birthday, has also been eliminated.
The transition to age calculation based on birth date was implemented on Wednesday.
The law change was a primary objective of President Yoon Suk-yeol during his campaign the previous year. He argued that the conventional age-calculation methods induced unnecessary socio-economic issues.
Disagreements over entitlement to insurance benefits and qualification for state aid programs are some instances of such conflicts.
Historically, the most prevalent age calculation system in South Korea was the "Korean age" system, whereby a child is considered one year old at birth and ages by a year every New Year. Consequently, a child born on December 31 would be considered two years old the following day.
Another "counting age" system, traditionally applied, considered a newborn as zero, with an additional year added every New Year.
Under these systems, for instance, a person born on June 29, 2003 would be considered 19 by international standards, 20 according to the "counting age" system, and 21 under the "Korean age" system, as of June 28, 2023.
The national legislature decided to abandon these traditional age calculation systems in December of the previous year.
However, many statutes considering a person's age according to the "counting age" yearly system will continue. South Koreans, for example, can purchase cigarettes and alcohol based on the year, not the day, they turn 19.
A survey conducted by local agency Hankook Research in January 2022 revealed that 75% of South Koreans supported the standardization.
Jeongsuk Woo, a 28-year-old content creator, believes the new law will help dismantle South Korea's age-based hierarchy. He expressed hope that the abolishment of the "Korean age" system and the adaptation of the international standard would help eliminate age-old practices.
31-year-old physician Hyun Jeong Byun celebrated the change, as it made her two years younger. As a December-born individual, she felt the Korean age system artificially aged her. She appreciates that, now, when traveling abroad, she won't have to explain her 'Korean age.'
She noted that the international age system had already been embraced in South Korea's healthcare sector.
Other East Asian nations have also utilized traditional age-calculation methods, but most have abandoned them. Japan adopted the international standard in 1950, with North Korea following in the 1980s.