Singles Account for 20% of Households

By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff Reporter

One-member households represent one out of every five here, with more senior citizens living alone. Additionally, many young adults are delaying marriage and choosing to live alone due to financial pressure among other reasons, and more single women are living on their own amid a rising divorce rate.

Statistics Korea said Thursday that the number of households across the nation totaled 16.92 million in 2009, up 1.5 percent from the previous year.

One-member households reached 3.42 million, accounting for 20.2 percent of the total, up from 15.6 percent in 2000. The ratio is projected to reach 21.6 percent in 2020 and 23.7 percent in 2030.

The number of families in which both parents and their adult children live together stood at 7 million last year, accounting for 41.4 percent of the total, down from 41.8 percent in 2008. Korea's average household had 2.76 members, down from 2.79 over the same period.

The nation's total population rose 0.29 percent to 48.75 million in 2009, with senior citizens over 65 accounting for 10.7 percent of the total, up from 7.2 percent in 2000.

The crude birthrate, which indicates the number of children born per 1,000 people, stood at nine last year, down from 9.4 in 2008. The actual birthrate - the average number of babies expected per woman aged 15-49 - decreased to 1.15 from 1.19.

With the rapid population aging and low birthrate, the population will grow at a slower rate in the future. It is expected to expand 0.26 percent this year and 0.1 percent in 2015.

After peaking in 2019, the population will likely begin heading downward, the agency said, projecting that it will dip to 42.34 million in 2050, down 6.5 million from this year.

The number of workers aged over 55 totaled 4.43 million last year, up 2.9 percent from 2008, accounting for 18.9 percent of Korea's entire workforce, up from 18.3 percent.

The average Korean worked for 39.4 hours each week in 2008, 4.1 hours shorter than in 2007. As of the end of 2009, 47.94 million people had cellular phones, up 5.1 percent from the previous year, while about 15.48 million Koreans searched the Internet at least once.

Cancer was the No.1 killer of Koreans in 2008, claiming 139.5 lives out of every 100,000 in 2008, followed by cerebrovascular (56.5) and cardiovascular (43.4) diseases. Almost 26 of every 100,000 people committed suicide.

leehs@koreatimes.co.kr

'나홀로 가구' 전체의 5분의 1

우리나라의 전체 5가구 가운데 한 가구는 혼자 사는 이른바 '나홀로 가구'이고, 전체 인구의 1/10 이상이 65살 이상 고령 인구인 것으로 나타났다.

통계청이 4일 발표한 '한국의 사회지표'에 따르면 2009년 우리나라의 총 가구 수는 1691만 가구로 이 가운데 20%는 혼자 사는 1인 가구였으며 가구당 평균 구성원 수도 2.76명에 그친 것으로 나타났다.
지난해 우리나라 총인구는 4천874만7천명으로 전년보다 0.29% 증가했지만 내용상 저출산 고령화의 영향이 극심했음을 여실히 보여줬다.

혼인 건수는 30만9천건으로 전년에 비해 2만건 가까이 줄어든 반면, 이혼 건수는 1만건 증가한 12만7천건으로 나타났다.

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