"How Often Do You Call Your Parents?"... Increased During COVID-19, Now Declining Again

106 Phone Calls per Year on Average With Separately Residing Parents
Median Is 52 Calls Annually, Equivalent to Once a Week

It has been found that the frequency of phone calls to parents, which became more frequent during the COVID-19 period, has declined again in the post-pandemic era. Households with parents living separately made phone contact with their parents on average once every three to four days.

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According to the "2024 Korea Welfare Panel Survey and Analysis Report" by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, a survey of 7,654 households nationwide found that 44.38% of respondent households have parents who live separately.

Over the past year, these households contacted their separately residing parents by phone an average of 106 times. This equates to approximately once every 3.44 days.

Phone contact with parents increased temporarily during the COVID-19 pandemic. The annual average number of phone calls to parents was 90 in 2018, rising to 97 in 2019 and 103 in 2020. The number further increased to 112 in 2021 and 113 in 2022, but dropped to 106 in 2023.

Before COVID-19, phone contact with parents occurred about once every four days, but during the pandemic it became more frequent, at about once every three days. However, this trend has reversed in the post-pandemic period, with the frequency decreasing again.

The number of in-person meetings showed a different trend from phone contact. The frequency of visiting separately residing parents increased from an annual average of 39 times in 2018 to 43 times in 2019, but fell to 40 times each in 2020 and 2021 during the COVID-19 period. It then recovered slightly to 42 times each in 2022 and 2023.

There were also differences depending on income level. As of 2023, the average number of phone calls with separately residing parents was 95 times per year for low-income households and 106 times for general households. Throughout the survey period from 2018 to 2023, general households consistently tended to contact their parents more frequently than low-income households on average.

However, the median number of phone calls was 52 times per year, maintaining the same level both before and after COVID-19. Since some households that contact their parents very frequently may have raised the average, the median suggests that contacting parents by phone about once a week is typical.

Meanwhile, the Korea Welfare Panel Survey is jointly conducted by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs and the Seoul National University Social Welfare Research Institute. It is carried out annually to assess household economic conditions, living realities, and welfare-related perceptions, and also includes items that offer insights into family relationships such as contact and visits with parents.

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