The number of South Korean households without children has increased sharply for the past two decades. On the other hand, the number of households consisting of adults and children has declined since 1990, a researcher said Thursday.
According to Kim Mun-gil, a researcher at the state-run Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, two-person households without children accounted for 27.9 percent of the nation’s total households in 2012, up 18 percentage points from 9.9 percent tallied in 1990.
He said three-person households without children constituted 17.1 percent of the total households, compared with 6.9 percent in 1990, while four-person households without children made up 13.1 percent, up from 7.9 percent in 1990.
Meanwhile, households composed of three adults or more and a child accounted for 10.5 percent of the total, down 10.9 percentage points from 21.4 percent in 1990, Kim said.
The comparable figure stood at 3 percent for households with three adults or more and two children, compared with 10.9 percent in 1990; 14.1 percent for those with two adults and two children, down from 18.8 percent 22 years earlier; 8.6 percent for those with two adults with a child, compared with 14.5 percent.
