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피터빈트

Income of one-person households falls 3.5% in Q3

By Yonhap

Published : Nov. 28, 2017 - 09:33

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South Korea's single-person households saw their income drop at the fastest clip in about four years in the third quarter due to the country's rapid population aging, government data showed Tuesday.

The average income of such households stood at 1.68 million won ($1,540) in the July-September period, down 3.51 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea.

It marks the biggest on-year drop since the 3.54 percent decline during the fourth quarter of 2015. The income of one-member households has fallen for four quarters on end.

It is also the first time in eight years that single-person households' income has decreased for four consecutive quarters.

(Yonhap) (Yonhap)

The drop in one-person households' income was attributed to a 4.4 percent fall in earned income, which takes up the bulk of their earnings.

The agency said it is also closely related to the country's fast population aging, which has led to a jump in the number of single-person households comprised of elderly people.

According to last year's census, nearly 18 percent of one-person household heads were people aged 70 or older, followed by those in their 30s with 17.6 percent and 20-somethings with 17.2 percent.

"A considerable number of one-person households are comprised of seniors aged 60 or older, but most of them have low-paid jobs," an agency official said. "This factor probably impacted a slowdown in income growth of single-person households."

South Korea remains gripped by fast population aging. The country is tipped to become an aged society in 2017, with the ratio of people aged 65 and older hitting 14 percent of its 50 million population. It is forecast to become a super-aged society in 2026, with the figure hovering above 20 percent. (Yonhap)

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