SEOUL, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's single-person households were forecast to top 40 percent of the total by 2052 due to delayed marriage and rapid population aging, statistical office data showed Thursday.

The number of single households was expected to rise from 7.39 million in 2022 to 9.62 million in 2052, according to Statistics Korea.

The proportion of one-person households to the total was projected to increase from 34.1 percent in 2022 to 39.2 percent in 2032, 40.8 percent in 2042 and 41.3 percent in 2052.

Single households had been on the increase as more young people delayed or gave up on getting married or having children on the back of economic difficulties such as high housing prices, stubborn unemployment and high education costs.

The proportion of households with a couple and their children was predicted to slide from 27.3 percent in 2022 to 17.4 percent in 2052, but the proportion of two-member couple households was forecast to gain from 17.3 percent to 22.8 percent in the 30-year period.

Among the single-person households, those in their 30s and younger recorded the largest share of 36.6 percent in 2022, while those in their 70s and older were expected to take up the biggest share of 42.2 percent in 2052.

The number of households with household heads aged 65 and older was estimated to soar from 5,225,000 in 2022 to 11,788,000 in 2052, more than doubling in the 30-year period and accounting for over half of the total households.

The number of total households was projected to advance from 21,664,000 in 2022 to peak at 24,372,000 in 2041 before retreating to 23,277,000 in 2052.

The average number of members per household was predicted to fall from 2.26 in 2022 to 1.81 in 2052. Enditem

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