Single-person households are expected to emerge as the most dominant living arrangement in South Korea this year due to the rapid breakup of nuclear families, a government report showed Thursday.

The report by Statistics Korea showed single person homes will make up 25.3 percent of all households this year, followed by those with two and three people.

This is a change from 2010, when two-member households were the most numerous, followed by a single person family unit and those with three people. Two-person homes will make up 25.2 percent of all living units in 2012 with households comprising of three people reaching 21.3 percent.

“The predicted change in the basic family unit is the result of more people getting divorced, death of a spouse among senior citizens and people not opting to get married in the first place,” the state agency said.

It said this trend will continue unchanged up till 2035 when single person homes will make up 34.3 percent of the total.

The report also showed the total number of households in South Korea is expected to top 22.2 million in 2035, despite the drop off in the nation’s overall population starting from 2030 onwards.

It said the number will grow 1.3 times compared to 17.3 million units tallied in 2010.

Reflecting this, the average number of people making up a household will likely drop to 2.17 in the target year from 2.71 two years ago.

Of all households, those with one or two people will reach 68.3 percent, up from 48.1 percent in 2010. It added that homes with a couple and a single child will fall to 20.3 from 37 percent.

The statistical agency said that homes with a single member over 75 will reach 2.10 million units in 2035, up 4.3-fold from just 484,000 in 2010 and reflecting the rapid aging of the population. 

(Yonhap News)