[Graphic News] Nearly half of one-person households ‘poor’: report

Nearly half of single-member households are considered poor, and it is nearly 3 in 4 for senior citizens living alone, a report showed.

The relative poverty rate of one-person households came to 47.2 percent in 2020, compared to 15.3 percent for all households, according to the report from the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs.

The rate refers to the percentage of people with income below 50 percent of the median income.

The figure for single-person households, however, has been declining, from 54 percent in 2016 to 52.7 percent in 2018 and 51.8 percent in 2019, the report showed.

Of one-person households among people aged 65 and older, 72.1 percent were classified as being in the poor bracket as of 2020, though the figure was down from 78.4 percent five years earlier, the report showed. (Yonhap)

By Nam Kyung-don(don@heraldcorp.com)