Average Household Assets Near 700 Million Won in Seoul Metropolitan Area... 400 Million Won in Non-Metropolitan Areas

Capital Region Holds 61.8% of Nationwide Total Assets
Gap Between Capital and Non-Capital Regions Widens

As the average asset gap between households in the Seoul metropolitan area (Seoul, Gyeonggi, Incheon) and non-metropolitan households continues to widen, last year the average assets of metropolitan households were approximately 700 million KRW, nearly 70% higher than those of non-metropolitan households.

According to an analysis of the Statistics Korea Household Finance and Welfare Survey results requested by Kim Hoe-jae, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, from the National Assembly Legislative Research Office on the 30th, the average assets of metropolitan households as of the end of March last year were 692.46 million KRW. This is 69.2% more than the average assets of non-metropolitan households, which stood at 403.5 million KRW.

View of Yeouido apartments in Seoul from the 63 Building observatory. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

The asset gap between metropolitan and non-metropolitan households has been widening every year. In 2018, the average assets of metropolitan households were 504.65 million KRW, 47.5% higher than the 342.2 million KRW of non-metropolitan households. This gap increased to 53.6% in 2019, 59.6% in 2020, 65.6% in 2021, and 69.2% last year. The main reason for this phenomenon is attributed to the significant rise in real estate prices centered around the metropolitan area.

The concentration of metropolitan assets, which is the ratio of total metropolitan household assets to total national household assets, also rose from 57.8% in 2018 to 58.7% in 2019, 60.2% in 2020, 61.2% in 2021, and 61.8% last year. This means that as of last year, metropolitan households held about 62% of the nation's total assets. However, since assets include liabilities and the Household Finance and Welfare Survey samples about 20,000 households nationwide to microscopically assess the economic living standards of households, these figures should be interpreted with caution.

In 2021, the average annual current income (relatively regular and predictable income such as earned income) of metropolitan households was 70.22 million KRW, 20.4% higher than the 58.32 million KRW of non-metropolitan households. This figure shows little change compared to 22.2% in 2018, 21.3% in 2019, 20.2% in 2020, and 20.8% in 2021. The concentration of total current income in the metropolitan area was similarly steady, recorded at 53.1% in 2018, 52.9% in 2019, 53.2% in 2020, 53.5% in 2021, and 53.5% last year.

Regarding this, Representative Kim Hoe-jae said, "As companies, infrastructure, job seekers, and population all concentrate in the metropolitan area, the asset and income gap is widening, and regions face the risk of extinction." He added, "We need to promote a 'regional headquarters system' by providing administrative and financial support to companies that relocate their headquarters to non-metropolitan areas or establish branches of similar scale to their headquarters, and actively work on building regional infrastructure."

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