hankyoreh

Changes in distribution of single-person households among different age groups

Kang Hyeon-jung (pseudonym), a 45-year-old office worker, has lived as a bachelor in a one-person household for 20 years.

“It’s not that I made up my mind from the beginning to stay single, but somehow I’ve reached my mid-40s and I’m still alone. At this point, I’ve gotten used to living alone, and I don’t feel like I definitely have to get married in the future,” Kang said.

He started out in a studio apartment, but he currently lives in a three-room villa with a separate living room. As he spent more time living solo, his living space gradually expanded. “I have a lot of books, so I use the biggest room as a study, and I use the small one as a bedroom. Since I live alone anyway, I can adjust the space to meet my needs,” he said.

The single-person household, which used to be defined by young people or seniors whose spouses had passed away, has gradually expanded to include more people like Kang: middle-aged individuals of economic means. In 2000, the number of single-person households in Korea fell to 2,220,000. Last year, that number had more than doubled, reaching 5,620,000. In the past 15 years, single-person households have also soared from representing 15.5% of all households to 28.6%. As the number of single-person households has rapidly increased, the age groups and marital statuses of those included in the category have shown more variation.

Changes in marital status among single-person households for ages 45-54

On Sept. 28, Statistics Korea released a report on the changing status of domestic single-person households since 2000, titled “The Current State and Characteristics of Single-Person Households.”

The most noticeable change is the increase in middle-aged, single-person households between ages 45 and 64. In 2000, the number of households that fell within that age group was at 539,000, but by 2015, that number had increased to 1,618,000. That means the percentage of single-person households in this age group shot up from 24.2% to 31% in the same time period.

In comparison, the age group from 25 to 34, which used to be the representative ages for single-person households, dropped from making up 24.8% of the total in 2000 to just 17.6% in 2015. The shift in the makeup of single male households was particularly large, with the percentage of men between ages 45 and 64 increasing from 21% of all male single-person households in 2005 to 36.1% last year.

“It seems the biggest reason is that those who don’t insist on the necessity of marriage have reached middle age,” said Yang Dong-hee, the National Statistical Office population census chief. In reality, the number of single-person households comprising both men and women over the age of 45 who have never married increased from 53,000 in 2000 to 446,000 in 2015.

But while the number of middle-aged, single-person households is on the rise, the percentage of women between the ages of 65 and 74 who live alone decreased from 23.7% in 2000 to 16% last year. “Given that life expectancy for men is increasing, there are fewer elderly women between the ages of 65 and 74 who are living alone after losing their spouse,” the statistical office explained.