More 30-Something Women Embrace Singlehood

Increasing numbers of women in their 30s are happy to stay single. Their proportion jumped from just 13.3 percent in 2005 to 28.1 percent last year, according to the latest census released by Statistics Korea on Monday.

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Single men and women accounted for a whopping 36.3 percent of people in their 30s. Single men in their 40s also multiplied from 6.5 percent to 18.2 percent over the past 10 years. Married people accounted for 55.9 percent of the total and divorcees for 5.1 percent.

Highly educated women are especially prone to staying single, but the same is not true for men.

Among women who only completed high school, just 7.7 percent were single, but among women with vocational college diplomas the figure is 16.3 percent and among university graduates 18.9 percent.

"Men still commonly marry women who have a lower education than they do, but women rarely do", a Statistics Korea spokesman explained.

Single households increased from 4.14 million in 2010 to 5.2 million in 2015. Four out of 10 singles rent their home and one-third own it.