Uiryeong-gun is a historic and agricultural city with 50.8% of the population aged 60 or older (38.6%/65 or older), and it has already become a super-aged society since 1997.

In order to assess the need for an age-friendly city, Uiryeong-gun conducted a survey of 200 older people and 100 general citizens, based upon the 8 areas as outlined in the WHO’s age-friendly city guidelines in addition to many proposals from welfare experts. As a result of this work, 65 policies were adopted towards building an age-friendly city, and the following vision and three major tasks were derived.

Uiryeong-gun has set its vision as “A 100-year-old city you want to live in, Uiryeong, the home of loyalty and righteousness” with the goal of “realizing a warm and happy age-friendly city”.

• Creating a secure and livable infrastructure
  • Area 1: Housing facilities.
  • Area 2: Transportation
  • Area 3: Outdoor spaces and facilities
• Creating a happy and warm community worth living in
  • Area 4: Communication and Information
  • Area 5: Social Participation
  • Area 6: Respect and social embracing
• Guaranteeing a vibrant and healthy life.
  • Area 7: Citizen participation and employment
  • Area 8: Community Support and Health Services

Uiryeong-gun has formed an age-friendly monitoring group to develop policies for older citizens, prioritizing a bottom-up participation method and facilitating the participation in municipal policies in various ways including opportunities for the older citizens to provide opinions that reflect their interests and needs.

Older volunteers who are responsible for monitoring detailed projects in each area are encouraged to analyze and give voice to the needs of older adults by collecting opinions and inputs on various social issues related to ageing, allowing for direct participation in the policy-making process.

The budget for implementing an aged-friendly city for three years is expected to be about $55 million.