Breathing Costs a Million Won... The Sighs of Youth Trapped in a Single Room

Monthly Rent, Utility Bills, Food Expenses... The Daily Life of Youths Crushed by Tens of Millions of Won in Debt

A studio apartment in Sillim-dong, Gwanak-gu, Seoul. This cramped single room is all that Son, a 27-year-old student at Dongguk University, has. The deposit is 10 million won. Nearly 1 million won disappears every month just for rent, maintenance fees, and food. For a jobseeker on a leave of absence for more than two years, this is a massive shackle. Son confessed, “I took out a 3 million won personal loan and also borrowed living expenses from the Korea Student Aid Foundation. I thought debt would be the last resort, but it has already piled up to 30 million won.”
Son spends his days eating only ramen in his room. He once fell into cryptocurrency, dreaming of a quick win. It was during a strong bull market. He scraped together even borrowed money and invested 5 million won. There was a time he earned 2 million won in just ten days. He said, “When the dopamine hit, I became distant from reality. I later realized that easy money is easily spent, but when times are tough, ads like ‘open a bank account for someone else and get 30 million won’ start to catch my eye.”

For No, a 24-year-old student at Sookmyung Women's University, daily life is filled not with dreams but with “work for survival.” The studio near her school required a deposit of 10 million won and a monthly rent of 500,000 won. To find an even slightly cheaper place, she moved across the Han River to Sillim-dong. The cramped 13㎡ (about 4 pyeong) room never saw any sunlight. After about a year, she felt her emotions growing as dark as her room, so she took out a jeonse loan and moved into youth security housing.
Her living situation improved, but debt amounting to tens of millions of won weighed heavily on her. She even took out a living expenses loan just to pay the contract deposit. To cover living costs, she works four part-time jobs, 40 hours a week. After seeing a job posting for Korean language instructors, she applied, only to have a burner phone opened in her name and receive debt collection documents. Even so, whenever her situation gets desperate, she finds herself walking a tightrope. No sighed, “I am afraid, but there are many times I consider high-paying, risky part-time jobs.”

5.2% of Youths Are Reclusive... 'Employment Failure' Leads to Social Isolation

A warning light is flashing for the mental health of college students pushed to the brink. The crushing economic pressure of exorbitant housing costs and student loans is driving students into isolation even before they take their first steps into society. As getting a job becomes increasingly difficult, feelings of resignation grow. With futures filled with despair instead of dreams, experts point out that students are increasingly vulnerable to the dangerous temptations of gambling, quick-money cryptocurrency schemes, illegal high-paying part-time jobs, and drug addiction.

According to the report “Determinants of Youth Reclusion and Estimates of Socioeconomic Costs” released in February 2026 by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs and the Federation of Korean Industries, there were an estimated 538,000 reclusive youths in South Korea in 2024, accounting for 5.2% of the entire youth population. Reclusive youths are defined as those aged 19 to 34 who rarely leave their home or room for reasons other than pregnancy, childbirth, or disability. Considering South Korea’s college enrollment rate reached 73.6% in 2024, it is estimated that a significant number of reclusive youths are either college students or graduates.

The employment rate among reclusive youth was 36.9%, only half of the 72.2% employment rate among non-reclusive youth. This suggests that employment failure during the entry period into the labor market is a key cause of youth reclusiveness.

These survey results largely align with the 4.5% figure from 2023 when Seoul City conducted the nation's first survey on reclusive youth. At that time, 45.5% cited 'difficulty finding employment' as the main reason for isolation and reclusion. In particular, the proportion of those whose reclusive lifestyle lasted more than five years was 28.5%.

The Side Effects of Capitalism... “Strengthen Practical Economic and Community Education”

If the economic burden accelerates the social isolation of young people, there is a high risk that they will be exposed to deviant behaviors such as gambling for quick profits. Experts say it is fundamentally necessary to reduce the side effects of capitalism through practical economic education.

Jo Sang-sik, a professor in the Department of Education at Dongguk University, diagnosed, “Because of uncertainty about the future, gambling for quick profits has become widespread and a vicious cycle continues.” He continued, “In our country, education is centered around competition, such as entrance exams and private tutoring, while economic education is only in extracurricular areas. It is necessary not only to generalize economic education in university liberal arts, but also to implement education that reduces the side effects of capitalism starting from elementary and secondary school levels.”

A need for a community-based approach to education was also raised. Park Seung-hee, a professor in the Department of Social Welfare at Sungkyunkwan University, said, “Youth isolation is not simply an economic problem, but a tragedy that accompanies the destruction of community caused by the expansion of capitalism.” She went on to emphasize, “Our education system teaches only overly functional things. As we enter the age of artificial intelligence (AI), education that fosters a sense of community must increase.”