Daegu unveils first comprehensive age-friendly plan for elderly welfare
Daegu City in southeastern Korea has unveiled its first comprehensive plan for elderly welfare, under the framework of the city’s ordinance to create an age-friendly city. The five-year plan runs through 2030 and lays out strategies for improving life for seniors across the city.
The plan is based on a 2023 survey of elderly residents and centers on four priorities: strengthening health and local care safety nets; ensuring economic security and expanding social participation; promoting lifelong learning and cultural access; and building an inclusive welfare system. It includes 70 detailed tasks to translate these priorities into action.
The 2023 survey found that the most urgent policies for seniors were care and jobs, cited by 77 percent of respondents. When asked about services needed to continue living at home, many pointed to daily living and safety support, as well as assistance with accompanying to medical appointments and outings.
In response, Daegu’s plan calls for diversifying elderly employment opportunities, ensuring income security and independence, improving daily living and safety environments, utilizing smart care technology, and expanding opportunities for arts and cultural leisure activities.
For the first year of implementation, the city has allocated 2.057 trillion won (roughly $1.5 billion at current exchange rates) to roll out these policies and programs.
Kim Jeong-gi, acting mayor and deputy mayor for administration, said the plan reflects seniors’ real-life needs and the city’s unique characteristics, aiming to establish a support system centered on jobs, care, and leisure to foster a sustainable, age-friendly Daegu.
Beyond Korea, this initiative matters for U.S. readers as many American cities confront aging populations and rising demand for long-term care. Daegu’s approach shows how a densely populated city can integrate health care, social participation, technology, and culture to support aging in place, while creating new job opportunities and potential markets for smart-care technologies and elder-services providers. It also offers a real-world example of municipal-level welfare planning in a country known for rapid demographic shifts, with implications for cross-border collaboration and policy learning in aging, urban planning, and digital care.