The Statistical Relationship between the Elderly Population and Allocation of Welfare Facilities in Seoul, South Korea

Population of the senior citizens are increasing rapidly in many parts of the world. South Korea is one of the countries which are rapidly getting into aged society. In this situation, it is important to provide an age-friendly environment to increasing senior population. In South Korea, age-friendly environment can be provided by elderly welfare facilities. Therefore, this study focused on what effects the most for the allocation of the elderly welfare facility and defines whether if they are evenly allocated or not. Twenty-five districts of Seoul was analyzed with correlation analysis and found statistically significant results for medical, leisure, and ambulatory welfare facilities. Dissimilarity index showed about 9 % of the elderly welfare facilities were not evenly distributed. The population of the elderly is projected to increase in the future and to achieve aged-friendly society, the number of elderly welfare facilities has to be increased accordingly. To ensure fairness of services, allocation of the facilities must consider the elderly population indices and the elderly welfare law must enact just criteria for the establishment of welfare facilities and standards for qualification to use welfare facilities