Last Year, Dual-Income Households Reached an All-Time High Share

Statistics Korea: 6.11 Million Households... Account for 48.2%
Strong Employment Boosts Single-Person Household Employment Rate to Highest Level

With the continued improvement in employment in the second half of last year, the proportion of dual-income households and single-person households reached record highs.

According to the '2023 Second Half Regional Employment Survey on Dual-Income Households and Single-Person Household Employment Status' released by Statistics Korea on the 18th, as of the second half of last year (October), the number of dual-income households was 6.115 million, an increase of 268,000 households compared to the previous year. The proportion of dual-income households rose by 2.1 percentage points from the previous year to 48.2%, marking the highest level since related statistics began in 2015.

Statistics Korea analyzed that this increase was due to the rise in the proportion of households where both spouses are working, influenced by the favorable employment market in the second half of last year.

The number of dual-income households with children under 18 was 2.326 million, an increase of 129,000 households compared to one year earlier. The proportion of dual-income households among married couples with children under 18 rose by 3.5 percentage points to 56.8% compared to the previous year.

The proportion of dual-income households by age of the youngest child increased by 3.9 percentage points for those aged 6 or younger, 3.1 percentage points for ages 13 to 17, and 3.0 percentage points for ages 7 to 12 compared to the previous year.

During the same period, single-person households numbered 7.388 million, an increase of 164,000 households from the previous year. Among these, employed single-person households were 4.675 million, up by 120,000 households compared to the previous year. The employment rate among single-person households rose by 0.2 percentage points to 63.3%, marking a record high.

Regarding the wage levels of single-person wage worker households, 34.0% earned between 2 million and 3 million KRW, followed by 24.8% earning between 3 million and 4 million KRW. The proportions increased compared to the previous year by 2.5 percentage points for those earning 4 million KRW or more, and by 1.1 percentage points for those earning between 3 million and 4 million KRW.

By age group, the number of employed single-person households was highest among those aged 30 to 39 with 1.09 million households, followed by those aged 60 and over with 1.066 million households, and those aged 15 to 29 with 907,000 households.

The employment rate by age group was highest for those aged 30 to 39 (87.4%), followed by those aged 40 to 49 (82.7%). The largest increases compared to the previous year were among those aged 60 and over (1.7 percentage points), 50 to 59 (1.4 percentage points), and 40 to 49 (0.3 percentage points), in that order.

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