Living alone has become the norm for young people in South Korea, and satisfaction with independent life is as high as 91.7%

Unconsciously, no matter which country, "empty nesters" have become a huge group. In South Korea, more and more "empty nesters" have become a common portrait of society.

According to data released by South Korea, as of 2019 , there were 20.116 million households in South Korea , of which 5.987 million were single-person households, which for the first time exceeded the number of "couple + children" households (5.962 million households) .

According to a survey in South Korea , 90% of young people who have become independent from their parents are satisfied with their independent life of "living according to their own lifestyle."

On the 19th, Korean employment platform Job Korea and part- time job website Albamon conducted a questionnaire survey on 1,864 unmarried young people aged 20 to 30 , including college students and office workers, with the theme of "Are you independent? "

The results showed that 44.8% ( 835 people ) answered "living independently", of which 65.5% were "satisfied" with their independent lives. The number of people who answered "very satisfied" also reached 26.2%, which means that 9 out of 10 people were very satisfied with their independent lives.

On the contrary, only 7.8% of respondents responded that they were “dissatisfied” and less than 1% responded that they were “completely dissatisfied (0.5%)”.

A big reason why young Koreans leave their parents and live independently is because of physical distance.

56.8% of the respondents answered: “Because they can enter a place or city or find a job that is completely different from their own”;

27.1% said “to save money, energy and time used in commuting to school and work”;

24.3% said “I want my own space”;

15.7% of the respondents said, “We are adults and want to live on our own.”

13.2% of people "want to live freely without interference";

The reasons why young Koreans are satisfied with their independent lives also fall into five main categories:

“No one says anything even if I want to do something” (24.3%) and “I can finish my work and go home without time restrictions such as traffic bans (21.1%)” ranked first and second respectively .

The following reasons were " a house decorated completely according to my preferences " (16.8%), "rolling around in the house when no one is around" (12.1%), and "getting together with friends without paying attention to other people's expressions " (9.3%) .

The top five advantages of independent living for independent youth are:

“freedom to live my own life” (41.9%);

“The main distances of travel, such as commuting to school and get off work, are shortened, and the quality of life is improved” (41.2%);

“Strengthened sense of responsibility for oneself” (27.4%);

“freedom from restrictions such as when to go home or get up” (23.7%);

“Having a complete space of my own” (16.5%);

However, independent living also comes with some problems and burdens, among which living expenses and housework burdens are the main sources of problems for independent living .

The most common drawback of independent living among young people is that "the monthly rent, utilities and other living expenses are a heavy burden" (74.5%). The second most common drawback is that "there are too many chores to do, such as washing clothes, cleaning, and cooking" (34%), which is more than twice the expected proportion .

In addition, "the loneliness and solitude of living alone" (20.5%), " restrictions on dining out alone (Koreans think eating out alone is) " (17.8%), "broken lifestyle habits and laziness" (15.0%), and "having to handle everything by myself, from small things to big things" (10.4%) are also important disadvantages of living independently.

South Korea

youth

Independent Living