The number of households in Korea has surpassed 20 million while the average number of people per household has dropped in recent years, a government report showed Sunday.

The Ministry of Public Administration and Security said the number of households exceeded 20 million for the first time in October and reached 21.98 million as of November.

The ministry said the total population was 50.71 million, and there was an average of 2.53 people living in each household.

Compared to November 2008, the total population went up by 1.2 million while the number of households increased by 1.03 million.

Three years ago, the average number of people per household was 2.61, the ministry said.

It attributed the trend to a rise of single-person households.

By gender, there were 25.39 million men and 25.31 million women as of November this year. But over the past three years, the female population went up by more than 610,000 while the male population increased by just under 590,000.

Seoul saw its population rise by about 58,000 to 10.26 million this year, and the average number of people per household in the nation’s capital was 2.44.

The ministry said there were almost 8 million South Koreans over the age of 60. It said the over-60 population rose by more than 900,000 from 2008, while the population under 30 fell by almost 1.3 million in the same period. 

(Yonhap News)