One-third of households in Korea only have one person

Posters advertising one-room apartments posted on a wall in Dongjak, Seoul. People living were more than 30 percent of all households last year.

One third of households in Korea are single households, a new record.

Most are either young or old.

According to Statistics Korea on Wednesday, in 2021, 7.17 million Koreans were living alone. That’s 33.4 percent of the 21.4 million households in the country.

In 2020, the figure broke 30 percent for the first time.

Two-person households were 28.3 percent of the total, and those with four or more were 18.8 percent.

The recent rapid expansion in the number of smaller families reflects social changes in Korea, with people less interested in marriage and having children. Korea has the lowest fertility rate in the OECD.

In Finland, 47 percent of households are single person, Sweden 45.4 percent and German 42.1 percent.

Japan and France both had a single-person household ratio of 38 percent.

The statistics agency projects that at the current rate, the one-person-household ratio will edge close to 40 percent by 2050.

By age, 19.8 percent of single households were individuals 29 and under, 18.1 percent were individuals 70 or over and 16.4 percent were individuals in their 60s.

The income of one-person households was 42 percent of the average of all households in Korea.

Last year, the average annual income of people living alone was 26.9 million won. While this is a 11.7 percent increase year-on-year, it is far less than the overall household income of 64.1 million won.

Of those living alone, 70.9 percent were living on government grants or basic income. This ratio has been steadily rising since 2015, when it first exceeded 60 percent.

In terms of housing arrangements, 42 percent were paying monthly rents. Of the younger single-person households, 64 percent were paying monthly rents.

Eleven percent were living in small rental spaces known as gosiwon.

Most of the people living alone were in major cities.

Of the single-person households, 21.5 percent were in Gyeonggi, which has experienced a huge inflow of young people due to the rapid rise of housing prices in Seoul.

Seoul had 20.8 percent of the single-person households and Busan had 6.8 percent.

One third of people living alone said they were doing so because of their jobs, and 26.2 percent of people said they want to be independent.

When asked why they are single, 30 percent cited the lack of money as a reason for not marrying, 14.4 percent said it was because they had no job or did not feel secure in their current position. More than 12 percent said they didn’t see the need to marry.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]