One in Three Koreans Lives Alone... Youth and Elderly Make Up Over Half of Single-Person Households

Statistics Korea Announces 2020 Population and Housing Census Results
Single-Person Households Aged Under 29 and Over 60 Account for 53.9%

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The number of Koreans living alone has surged over the past five years. In particular, young adults in their 20s and seniors aged 60 and above account for more than half of one-person households. Concerns are expected to grow that the country's growth engine may be weakening.

On the 29th, Statistics Korea announced the results of the 2020 Population and Housing Census reflecting this trend. The Population and Housing Census is conducted once every five years by Statistics Korea to understand the population, including all domestic and foreign residents living in Korea, as well as housing scale.

Three out of ten Koreans live alone

A single-person restaurant near Sharosugil, Gwanak-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

The proportion of one-person households among all general households reached 31.7%. This is 4.5 percentage points (P) higher than 27.2% in 2015. General households refer to family households or households with five or fewer members, excluding foreign households.

By household size within general households, one-person households (31.7%) were the most common, followed by two-person households (28.0%), three-person households (20.1%), four-person households (15.6%), and households with five or more members (4.5%).

The "nuclear family replacing extended family" is now a thing of the past, and statistics prove that one-person households hold the largest share. The population structure of Korean households has shifted from four-person households (before 2005) → two-person households (2010) → one-person households (after 2015), and recently this trend has accelerated.

Accordingly, the average household size of general households also decreased to 2.34 persons, down 0.05 from 2.39 in 2019. It also declined by 0.19 from 2.53 five years ago.

By region, Daejeon had the highest proportion of one-person households at 36.3%, while Gyeonggi Province had the lowest at 27.6%. Regarding this, Jung Namsu, head of the Population Census Division at Statistics Korea, explained, "There are many university professors residing in Daejeon, and many one-person households live in military education institutions such as Jaundae, military facilities, and research complexes."

Rapid increase in young and elderly one-person households

Notably, the number of one-person households among young adults and the elderly is steadily increasing. These age groups are considered vulnerable in terms of employment and housing. By age, those in their 20s accounted for the largest share at 19.1%, followed by those aged 70 and above at 18.1%.

The number of one-person households aged 20-29 increased from 1,118,000 in 2019 to 1,267,000 last year. Those aged 70 and above surged from 1,132,000 to 1,202,000 households. The 60-69 age group also rose from 933,000 to 1,039,000 households (15.6% of the total), surpassing one million households.

Young adults and the elderly account for more than half of all one-person households. The proportion of one-person households aged 29 and under and those aged 60 and above reached 53.9%, up 1.1 percentage points from 52.8% a year earlier.

Source: Statistics Korea

Considering that the elderly population aged 65 and above among the total domestic population reached 8,206,000 (16.4% of the total), the aging index soared to 132.9, and the elderly dependency ratio sharply increased to 23.0, concerns about the country's growth engine fading are inevitable.

The aging index refers to the ratio of the elderly population to every 100 children. The elderly dependency ratio indicates the ratio of elderly people to every 100 working-age population. In other words, 4.3 working-age individuals must support one elderly person.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.