70.5 percent of single-person households had permanent jobs, lower than the 82.9 percent reported for the heads of multi-person households. (image: Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Nov. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — A recent survey has revealed that most individuals living by themselves in Seoul intended to continue to live alone, but their sense of happiness showed a tendency to decline during their 40s.
On Wednesday, the Seoul Metropolitan City Government unveiled the results of its analysis of the Statistics Korea census, a special estimate of households in the future and a survey it conducted with the participation of 1,000 citizens.
The analysis showed that the gap in the share of permanent jobs between single-person households and the heads of multi-person households stood at less than 1 percentage point for those not yet in their 30s, but then widened to more than 10 percentage points in the age range from 40 to 44.
In this age range, 70.5 percent of single-person households had permanent jobs, lower than the 82.9 percent reported for the heads of multi-person households.
The gap widened further by more than 5 percentage points for those over the age of 65.
Single-person households reported lower scores than the heads of multi-person households in terms of satisfaction with their financial status, social life and health.
In the category of comparing social relations through questions asking “Is there someone who can take care of you when you are sick?” and “Is there someone who can offer financial assistance when needed?”, single-person households lagged behind the heads of multi-person households in most age ranges.
However, in light of implementing physical exercise on a regular basis, single-person households marked higher scores compared to the heads of multi-person households in their 30s and 40s.
The data also showed that 40.9 percent of the single-person households said that Seoul was a good place to live alone, and 62.8 percent said they want to continue to live alone.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
