In Daytime Discos, South Korea's Seniors Find Escape From Anxiety

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates that South Korean seniors are poorest and most depressed among its member countries, and many of them are turning to daytime disco salons (colatecs) to relieve their anxieties, reports Reuters . The poverty rate of South Korean seniors was 49.6 percent in 2013, which is four times the OECD average. Meanwhile, the South Korean senior suicide rate rose from 35 per 100,000 persons in 2000 to 82 in 2010, versus the OECD average of 22. Colatecs started appearing in the late 1990s as no-alcohol dancing clubs for teenagers, but seniors soon became their primary patrons. Hyundai Research Institute economist Joo Won supports the benefits of colatecs, noting that "we have one unhappy aging society that needs support both from the public and the government. Places like colatecs need to be nurtured." The OECD predicts that there will be 71 people aged 65 and over for every 100 people aged 15 to 64 in South Korea by 2050, up from 17.3 per 100 in 2014. This will make South Korea the third-oldest country in the world among wealthy nations, trailing Japan and Spain.