Among young adults (ages 19-34) who are delinquent on loans, 74% have failed to repay for more than 90 days. The total number of delinquent young adults is 572,347, with an average overdue amount of 9.1 million KRW. Among young adults with loans, 17% have borrowed from three or more financial institutions. Young adults using the 'revolving' service, which allows a portion of the payment to be carried over to the next month, have an average rollover agreement of 3.167 million KRW.

Number of delinquent young adults: 572,347
Long-term delinquents: 425,696

Average delinquent amount: 9.1 million KRW
Card revolving users: 297,348

Photo by Kim Hyunmin

According to the '2024 Youth Financial Status Survey' received by Lee Jungmun's office of the Democratic Party of Korea from the Korea Inclusive Finance Agency on the 31st, the number of young adults currently delinquent (30 days or more) is 572,347. This accounts for 6.2% of the surveyed young adult population (9,274,074). The surveyed group includes those within the age range eligible for the Youth Leap Account (19-34 years). There are 2,687,951 people aged 19-24, 3,131,400 aged 25-29, and 3,454,723 aged 30-34.

Including those who are not currently delinquent but have experienced delinquency in the past, the number rises to 1,020,699, which is 11.1% of all young adults. In other words, 1 in 10 young adults has experienced delinquency. The average total delinquency period is 121.9 days. Among them, men have an average of 134.2 days, longer than women at 103.3 days.

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Of all young adult delinquents, 425,696 are in long-term delinquency of 90 days or more, accounting for 74% of all delinquent young adults. The average overdue amount for young adults is 9.1 million KRW. The older the age group, the greater the average overdue amount: 5 million KRW for ages 19-24, 7 million KRW for ages 25-29, and 11 million KRW for ages 30-34.

The number of young adults currently holding loans is 2,850,636, which is 30.7% of all young adults. The average age at which they first take out a loan is 23.7 years, and 91.9% of young adults with loan experience took out their first loan before age 30. The number of young adults with multiple debts from three or more financial institutions is 474,665, which is 16.7% of young adults with loans.

The average credit score among young adults is 806.3 points (KCB standard). Young adults in the bottom 10% of credit scores number 736,227, accounting for 8% of all young adults.

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Young adults in Korea spend an average of 1.467 million KRW per month using cards. They own an average of 1.7 credit cards, and the average monthly installment amount is 366,400 KRW.

Young adults who use partial payment rollover agreements (revolving) tend to rollover relatively large amounts. Revolving is a service that allows users to set a certain percentage of their current month's card bill to be carried over to the next month. Revolving is cited as a major cause of credit score decline and comes with higher fees than other types of loans. Card payments can be endlessly carried over, and fees are charged on the rolled-over amount as well.

The number of young adults using revolving is 297,348, with an average revolving amount of 3.167 million KRW. Notably, 64,135 young adults, or about 22%, use revolving for amounts over 5 million KRW, the largest group among seven categories. The most common reason for using revolving was a lack of funds to repay. According to an in-depth financial survey of 1,624 young adults conducted by the Korea Inclusive Finance Agency, 41% of young adults using revolving (78 respondents) said they used the service because they lacked the funds to pay off their card balance in full. Another 19.2% said they used it to prevent a credit score drop due to delinquency.