An increasing number of people in their 30s and 40s are still dependent on their parents for their own children's education and for living costs. Known as "kangaroo people" because they live in their parents' pouch, their numbers are growing to near 15 percent of parents in the capital, a poll suggests.

Hanul Education polled 276 parents with primary or secondary school children in Seoul and its vicinity in association with the Chosun Ilbo.

Some 10.9 percent of respondents said they receive money from their parents for their own children's educational expenses. Some 46.7 percent in this category said their parents volunteered to help them. Some 33.3 percent said they take money from their parents because they cannot afford to pay private education costs on their own, while 16.7 percent said they want to live more comfortably.

Some 10.2 percent of the 276 earned more than W7 million (US$1=W1,286) a month, 22.9 percent between W5 million and W7 million, 42.2 percent W3-5 million, and 24.7 percent less than W3 million.

Parents paid between half and all of the private education costs for 13.3 percent of couples' children, followed by 10-50 percent (66.6 percent) and less than 10 percent (20 percent). Of those who got no money from their parents, 52.44 percent said they would like to.

Park Chan-ung, a professor of sociology at Yonsei University, said, "The second and third-generation kangaroos are a Korea-specific phenomenon where parents take infinite responsibility for their children even after they are married."

Ham In-hee, a professor of sociology at Ewha Womans University, said, "Grandparents who are less economically competent are under some stress due to the phenomenon."