SEOUL, Nearly half of married couples in South Korea had dual incomes last year and their proportion out of all married couples reached an all-time high, data showed Tuesday.

The number of double-income households rose by 268,000 to come to 6.12 million as of October 2023, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.

It was the first time ever that the number of dual-income families surpassed the 6 million level, while the total number of married couples fell by 4,000 to 12.69 million.

The dual-income families accounted for 48.2 percent of the total married couples, and the ratio marked the largest ever since 2015, when the government began compiling the relevant data.

Of households with a child aged 6 or younger, 51.5 percent, a record high, were dual-income families, indicating that many couples opted to continue working to support their families.

Meanwhile, the proportion of working households among single-person households reached a record high last year.

The number of working one-person hous
eholds came to 4.68 million, taking up 63.3 percent, the largest ever share.

Some 79.9 percent of the total single-person households, or 3.73 million, had wage workers, and 34 percent of them earned between 2 million won and 3 million won per month.

Around 20 percent earned more than 4 million won per month, and 11.1 percent were found to have a monthly income of less than 1 million won, the data showed.

Source: Yonhap News Agency