A customer shops at a large supermarket in Seoul, Dec. 13. Yonhap

The proportion of one-person households in Korea reached a new high of 35.5 percent in 2023, largely due to rapid aging and an increasing number of young people delaying marriage, the statistics agency said Monday.

The total number of households with a single member came to 7.83 million last year, accounting for 35.5 percent of all households in the country last year, up from the previous year's 34.5 percent, according to the data from Statistics Korea.

It marked the largest proportion since 2015, when the agency began compiling relevant data.

By region, Gyeonggi Province, which surrounds Seoul, accounted for the largest share of single-member households at 21.9 percent, followed by the capital city at 20.8 percent.

The average annual income of one-person households in 2023 was tallied at 32.23 million won ($22,455), a 7.1 percent increase from the previous year, the data showed.

The figure represents 44.9 percent of the average income of all households, which came to 71.85 million won.

The agency also said 28.3 percent of single-member households had been living alone for five to 10 years, followed by 24 percent for 10 to 20 years, and 16.5 percent for one to three years.

The primary reasons cited for living alone were the death of a spouse, at 31.9 percent, followed by academic or professional pursuits at 22.4 percent, the agency said.

Korea has seen a constant rise in the number of one-person households since 2015, when the country had 5.2 million single-member families, which accounted for 27.2 percent of the total. In 2019, the percentage topped 30 percent for the first time. (Yonhap)