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• In June 2023, people in South Korea suddenly became younger, the BBC reported.
On Dec. 8, the South Korean parliament voted to switch from two traditional methods of counting age to the more widely recognized international method for official documents.
Currently, Koreans are 1 year old at birth and then gain another year on the first day of each following year. An alternate method has them at 0 upon birth, then adding a year each Jan. 1.
So, for example, someone born on Dec. 31, 2002, is 19 years old using the international method.
But under Korea's traditional methods, they might be 20 or 21 years old.
One member of parliament said the change would reduce "unnecessary socio-economic costs, because legal and social disputes as well as confusion persist due to the different ways of calculating age." [BBC, 12/8/2022]