This March 26, 2021, file photo shows people crossing a street in Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of households comprised of non-family members like friends or partners is on the rise, data showed Monday.
Statistics Korea reported that the number of non-family households nationwide jumped by 11.6 percent in the last 12 months, amounting to 472,660 households.
Non-family households are comprised of five people or fewer, who aren’t related to each other but are friends or couples living together.
There were only around 200,000 non-family households back in 2016. After passing the 300,000 hurdle in 2017, the number of non-family households grew to 400,000 in 2020 and 470,000 last year.
The number of household members in non-family households is also on the rise, reaching 1,015,100 people last year for an increase of 74 percent over the last five years.
Sorted by region, Gyeonggi Province had the highest number of non-family households (126,003), followed by Seoul (99,555), indicating that more than half of all non-family households in the country reside in the greater Seoul area.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
