SEOUL, July 28 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's single-person households hit a record high in 2025, revealing a rapid shift in living trends, statistical ministry data showed Tuesday.
The number of households totaled 23.25 million in 2025, up 0.25 million, or 1.1 percent, from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics.
General households, which refer to those consisting of families or small non-family groups living together, accounted for 96.8 percent of the total.
Institutional households, comprising unrelated individuals sharing large collective facilities such as nursing facilities, and foreigner households made up the remaining 3.2 percent.
Traditional household structures continued to change amid growing single-person and non-relative households.
Of the total general households, single-person households took up a record-high 36.6 percent in 2025.
The proportion of single-person households kept rising from 15.5 percent in 2000 to 27.2 percent in 2015, although the growth rate slowed down.
Two-person households represented 29.4 percent of the total, while three- and four-person households accounted for 18.8 percent and 12.1 percent each.
The number of members per household was 2.16 in 2025, down 0.03 from a year earlier and 0.18 compared to five years ago.
Of the total, households consisting of relatives made up 60.7 percent in 2025, down from 61.3 percent in 2024 and 74.9 percent in 2010.
The proportion of non-relative households, such as friends and unmarried couples living together, advanced to 2.7 percent in 2025 from 2.6 percent in 2024 and 1.2 percent in 2010.
The Asian country's total population added 0.02 percent to 51.82 million in 2025 compared to the previous year.
The growth was driven by rising foreign population, masking a reduction in domestic residents.
The number of South Korean nationals fell 0.1 percent to 49.71 million, taking up 95.9 percent of the total population, while the number of foreign resident population grew 3.2 percent to 2.11 million.
The working-age population aged 15-64 decreased from 36.26 million in 2024 to 35.87 million in 2025, while those aged 0-14 declined from 5.42 million to 5.22 million.
The elderly population aged 65 and older expanded from 10.12 million to 10.72 million in the cited year.
The elderly population accounted for 20.7 percent of the total population, pushing the country deeper into a super-aged society. ■
