Annual per capita rice consumption in South Korea is less than half compared to 1970

Due to changing dietary habits, the annual consumption of rice in South Korea has been declining since the 1980s.

The annual per capita consumption of rice in South Korea is less than half of what it was in 1970, when it reached an all-time high. In addition, the amount of rice consumed from meals purchased outside the home surpassed that of rice consumed at home. This means that more and more people do not eat rice even when they eat at home.

According to the report released by Statistics Korea on March 25, annual rice consumption per capita in 2022 was 56.7 kilograms, less than half of the record high of 136.4 kilograms in 1970. Annual rice consumption has been declining since the 1980s due to changes in eating habits.

Analyzing South Koreans’ three meals a day, as of 2019, 28.1 percent of them skipped breakfast, significantly higher than lunch (7.7 percent) and dinner (5.4 percent). For breakfast, 66.1 percent ate meals at home and 44.4 percent ate food including rice at home. For lunch, the proportion of eating out was 49.9 percent, which was higher than that of having home-cooked meals (42.4 percent). Among eating out, the proportion of eating food containing rice was very high at 40.3 percent, and the percentage remained constant every year. For dinner, the proportion of having home-cooked meals was 66.7 percent, which was significantly higher than eating out (27.9 percent). The percentage of those who consumed rice from home-cooked meals stood at 51.9 percent.

Analysis of detailed meal patterns from 2013 to 2019 showed that the proportion of skipping breakfast increased and that of meals containing rice decreased. Conversely, the proportion of meals without rice increased. In particular, the proportion of having home-cooked meals without rice increased significantly compared to that of having meals without rice at restaurants.

Daily rice intake per person decreased by about 3.8 percent per year on average from 172.9 grams in 2013 to 137.2 grams in 2019. When categorizing meals into eating-out and eating-in, the average rice intake per meal in 2013 was 65.2 grams and 62.6 grams, respectively. Until 2015, rice intake per meal was slightly higher for eating-in than eating-out, but the trend began to reverse in 2016 and, by 2019, rice intake was about 10 grams higher for eating-out with 59.4 grams compared to 49.3 grams for eating-in.

The report explained, "The difference in intake by meal type is likely due to the fact that rice intake of eating-in decreased by 4.6 percent per year on average between 2013 and 2019, while that of eating-out decreased at a relatively small percentage of 0.9 percent.”

In terms of average rice intake by meal, as of 2019, the highest amount of rice was consumed at lunch (59.4 grams), followed by dinner (52.7grams) and breakfast (45.3 grams). By demographic and social characteristics, men (63.3 grams) ate more rice per meal than women (43.7 grams), and older people ate more rice per meal.

While there was no significant difference in rice intake at home between employed and unemployed people, there was a difference of about 10 grams per meal when it comes to eating out, with employed people eating 64 grams and unemployed people eating 54.4 grams. Rice intake of eating-out during the week, which stood at 61.1 grams, was higher than that on weekends (55.1 grams).

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.