More Adults Live with Parents

Three out of 10 adults under 50 still live with their parents even though the traditional extended family has disappeared from Korea.

That is a substantial majority of unmarried adults. They find it difficult to move out because of trouble finding jobs and sky-high housing costs.

The figures come from a survey of 14,538 people last year released by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs on Tuesday.

It found that 29.9 percent of adults aged 19-49 were living with their parents or a whopping 64.1 percent of unmarried adults in that age group, compared to 3.1 percent of married ones.

People typically move out of the parental home when they get married (36.4 percent), go to college (28 percent), or find jobs (20.9 percent).

Only 23.5 percent of adults with jobs lived with their parents compared to 43.6 percent of the unemployed.

Even in their 40s, 9.2 percent lived with their parents, rising to 48.8 percent of unmarried 40-somethings. Among 20-somethings the proportion was 62.4 percent and among people in the 30s 16 percent.