Households to Get Smaller, Older
By Yoon Ja-young
Staff Reporter
More than half of households will be composed of only one or two people in 2030 due to low birthrates and increasing number of divorces. The number of households headed by females will also increase as more women choose to divorce or stay single.
According to the National Statistical Office (NSO), there are 16.4 million households in Korea as of 2007, up 1.6 percent from the previous year. While the total population will start declining after reaching 49.3 million in 2018, the number of households will continue rising to 19.9 million by 2030 as the size of households gets smaller, the statistics office said.
A household consists of 2.83 members now on average but the figure will fall to 2.35 in 2030. Currently, the most typical Korean household is composed of four people, accounting for 26.9 percent of total households. Small households consisting of one or two people take up 42.6 percent. But in 2020, over half of total households will comprise one person or two, according to the NSO.
The statistics office also estimated that households in Korea will get older. Currently, 15.2 percent of households are headed by senior citizens aged 65 or older. One out of three households will follow suite in 2030 due to growing life expectancy and more senior citizens choosing to form their own households, rather than live with their children. The median age of the head of households will be 57.3 in 2030, 9.8 years older than the current 47.5.
More households will also be headed by females as more women opt to divorce and stay single. Currently, 77.9 percent of households are headed by males, while only 22.1 percent are led by females. The ratio of such households is expected to grow to 23.9 percent in 2030.
The NSO statistics also showed the concentration of population around Seoul and the metropolitan area. Over 47 percent of the total households are residing in Seoul and its vicinity as of 2007, but the ratio will top 50 percent in 2015. Gyeonggi Province has the most households with 3.6 million or 21.6 percent of the total, followed by Seoul with 3.4 million households and Busan with 1.2 million.