S.Korea's one-person households rise fast in 2018 on aging population

Source: Xinhua | 2019-06-26

One-person households in South Korea rose fast last year as the aging population raised the number of one-person households in their 50s or higher, statistical office data showed Tuesday.
The number of one-person households reached 5,788,000 as of October in 2018, up 3.1 percent from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea.
It accounted for 29.2 percent of all households in the month, up 0.5 percentage points from a year ago.
The fast growth in one-person households came amid the population aging. South Korea became an aged society in 2017 as the number of those aged 65 or older topped 14 percent of the total population.
In 2000, the country became the aging society, which has the elderly people taking up more than 7 percent of the total population. If the portion surpasses 20 percent, a country becomes a super-aged society.
The one-person households aged 50-64 took up 26.6 percent of the total as of last October, with the rate for those aged 65 or higher making up 10.8 percent.
It was followed by the one-person households in their 30s with 23 percent, those in their 40s with 20.6 percent and those aged 15-29 with 19 percent each.
The male one-person households came in at 57.7 percent of the total, with the female households standing at 42.3 percent.