(Image: Kobiz Media)
SEJONG, Jul. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — More than 2.84 million Korean women live alone, with growing numbers engaged in economic activities, data showed on Monday.
According to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and Statistics Korea, one-woman households accounted for 49.5 percent of the total 5.74 million single-person households this year.
The statistics agency expects the number to continue to rise to reach 3.23 million by 2025, and 3.65 million by 2035.
Overall, the total number of women in Asia’s fourth-largest economy stood at 25.75 million this year, making up 49.9 percent of the country’s population. Life expectancy of Korean women was 85.4 years, up by 3.3 years from 10 years ago and 6.1 years longer than that of men, the data showed.
50.8 percent of women were employed last year, up 0.3 percentage point from a year earlier. Unemployment was 3.5 percent, down 0.1 percentage point over the cited period. By age, women in their late 40s had the highest employment rate of 69.7 percent, followed by those in their late 20s with 69.6 percent and those in their early 50s with 66.3 percent.
Employment dropped among women in their late 30s who left the workplace due to marriage, birth and childrearing, the data showed.
(Yonhap)
