1 out of 3 households in Gyeonggi live alone

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A full 31.2 percent of the 5.5 million total households in Gyeonggi Province consist of just one person as of last November, a report by the regional government showed Wednesday.

As of November 2023, there were a total of 1.71 million single-person households in the province, up from 1.63 million the previous year. A full 21.9 percent of all single-person households nationwide are in Gyeonggi.

South Korea's most populous province, Gyeonggi has a population of 13.67 million as of August 2024. It has also led all regions in the total number of single-person households since 2020, which was when the number of its residents living alone surpassed the number of single-person households in Seoul for the first time.

Last November, Seoul was found to have 1.63 million single-person households, while Busan was next on the list with 533,000.

The portion of single-person households in Gyeonggi has risen each year since 2019, when they amounted to 26.3 percent. Nearly 40 percent of the single-person households in the area are in the five major cities of Suwon (10.5 percent), Seongnam (7.6 percent), Goyang (7.4 percent), Hwaseong (7 percent) and Yongin (6.2 percent).

Last November, it was in fact the "gun" areas -- rural districts in provinces equivalent to counties -- and smaller cities that had the highest percentages of single-person households, led by 38.6 percent in Yeoncheon-gun, 38.5 percent Gapyeong-gun and 37.1 percent in Dongducheon.

Of the single-person households, 30.3 percent lived by themselves for between five and nine years, 26.4 percent lived alone for 10-19 years, 16.1 percent lived alone for between three and four years and 15.5 percent for between one and two years.

Compared to the same survey conducted in 2020, those living alone for 10-19 years marked an increase of 13.8 percentage points. But those living by themselves for one to two years and less than one year decreased each by 5.1 percentage points and 6.7 percentage points, respectively.

When asked what the biggest problems of living alone were, 44.9 percent of single-person households picked, "finding it hard to eat balanced meals," while 42.6 percent said, "coping alone when sick or in danger." Other answers included: "doing daily chores (29.7 percent)," "loneliness from being cut off from other people (25.3 percent)" and "financial instability (22.4 percent)."

The report used data from Statistics Korea, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and Gyeonggi Province's own survey. Statistics Korea's March report showed that 34.5 percent of all households in Korea live alone, which is less than the 41.8 percent indicated by the Ministry of Interior and Safety.

The disparity between the findings by the two government bodies derives from the way they each define a household.

Statistics Korea defines a household based on whether the members share a livelihood or income -- regardless of whether or not they actually live together. Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry's definition of a household is based on where the person actually lives.

For example, if a single adult son of a family lives apart from his parents but shares the same livelihood, the ministry would count two households, whereas Statistics Korea would count one.

By Yoon Min-sik(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)