Yi Whan-woo is a Korea Times journalist primarily covering finance. He writes in-depth articles on macroeconomy and financial markets and previously covered sports, politics, diplomacy and inter-Korean affairs, among others. Feel free to contact him at yistory@koreatimes.co.kr.
Single-person households hit record high, struggle with insufficient incomes
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By Yi Whan-woo
A record-high number of Koreans are living by themselves and earn less than half the average income of typical households across the country, data showed Tuesday.
According to data released by Statistics Korea, the number of single-person households in Korea totaled 7.50 million in 2022, up from 7.16 million a year earlier.
The 2022 figure was the highest since 2015 when the stats agency started compiling relevant data.
Single-person households accounted for 34.5 percent of entire households last year, up from 33.4 percent in the previous year. It marked the highest proportion and topped 34 percent for the first time.
The country saw a constant increase in the number of people living alone with more young people delaying marriage. The number went up from 5.61 million in 2017, 5.84 million in 2018, 6.14 million in 2019 and 6.64 million in 2020.
Correspondingly, the proportion of those living alone out of the whole number of families jumped from 28.6 percent in 2017 to 29.3 percent in 2018, 30.2 percent in 2019 and 31.7 percent in 2020.
Of the single-person households in 2022, those in their 20s accounted for the largest share at 19.2 percent, followed by people in their 70s with 18.6 percent and those in their 30s with 17.3 percent.
For women, those aged 70 and older living alone accounted for the largest share at 27.9 percent, as compared to those in their 20s at 18.9 percent.
For men, 22 percent, or the largest proportion, were those in their 30s, followed by those in their 20s with 19.5 percent.
The annual average income of single-member households, however, was lower than half the average of all households.
Those living alone earned 30.1 million won on average ($22,791) in 2022, compared to 67.62 million won for all households.
Moreover, 61.3 percent of one-person households had an annual income of less than 30 million won, compared to 26.8 percent for all households.
One-person households held an average of 295 million won in assets as of 2023, and their financial debt averaged 36.51 million won.
The average assets of all households came to 527 million won and the average debt stood at 91.86 million won.
Meanwhile, two-member households accounted for 28.8 percent or 6.26 million of all families in 2022, followed by three-member households taking up 19.2 percent and four-member families with 17.6 percent.
The proportion of two-member households increased from a year earlier, while that for three- and four-member families fell by 0.2 percentage points and 1.2 percentage points, respectively.