A new government study has revealed that South Korean women born in the 1980s and later have achieved higher rates of tertiary education than their male counterparts. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 28 (Korea Bizwire) — A new government study has revealed that South Korean women born in the 1980s and later have achieved higher rates of tertiary education than their male counterparts, marking a significant shift in educational demographics.
The research, released on March 27 by Statistics Korea’s Statistics Research Institute, examines educational attainment, employment patterns, and independence timing across youth cohorts born between 1970 and 1994.
For those born in the 1980-1984 period, 72.1% of women completed university education compared to 69.4% of men. The gap widened for the 1985-1989 cohort, with 77.3% of women graduating from university versus 72.2% of men. The disparity became even more pronounced among those born between 1990-1994, where the graduation rate among women reached 78.5%, exceeding the men’s rate of 65.3% by more than 13 percentage points.
The study also found that women have been outpacing men in graduate school enrollment since the 1980s cohort. The findings were based on data collected when each generation reached ages 31-35, except for the 1990-1994 cohort, which was measured at ages 26-30.
The research highlighted structural changes in young adults’ life trajectories, including delayed entry into the workforce. The average age of first employment has increased from 22.12 years for the 1975-1979 cohort to 23.4 years for those born between 1985-1989, with the 1990-1994 cohort maintaining a similar pattern at 23.36 years.
The proportion of NEETs (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) consistently exceeded 20% across all generations after age 20, potentially including young people preparing for civil service examinations, corporate recruitment, or seeking preferred employment opportunities.
The report noted increased migration to the Seoul metropolitan area among people in their mid-to-late 20s, suggesting a shortage of quality jobs in other regions. While the trend of unmarried young adults living with parents has generally increased across generations, the most recent cohort (1990-1999) showed a slight decline in this pattern.
Researchers attributed this shift to government housing support programs for young adults, drawing comparisons to Northern and Western European countries where early independence is common due to robust welfare systems. However, the report recommended further research to determine whether this trend represents a short-term or long-term shift in living arrangements.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
