The poverty rate in South Korea has risen to approximately 15%, reaching its highest level in five years

(South Korea News) A report released by the South Korean government indicates that there are still structural problems in the field of social inclusion in the country. Among them, the relative poverty rate has risen to 15.3%, meaning that more than 15 out of every 100 people have an income lower than half of the median equivalent disposable income.

The "Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals in South Korea (2026)" report released by the Statistics Korea on Monday (March 30th) conducted a comprehensive comparison between South Korea and the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) based on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations.

The results show that although South Korea ranks at the top in terms of innovation capabilities, economic development and healthcare, and has shown an overall improvement in the five dimensions of "people, planet, prosperity, peace and cooperation", there is still a long way to go in terms of poverty eradication and gender equality.

The poverty rate has reached a new high since 2019.

The data shows that the relative poverty rate of disposable income in South Korea in 2024 was 15.3%, an increase of 0.4 percentage points compared to the previous year, reaching the highest level since 2019 (16.1%).

The situation of the disadvantaged groups is particularly difficult. It is known that the relative poverty rate among people aged 66 and above is as high as 37.7%, and the poverty rate among women of the same age group is even higher at 42.7%. Additionally, the poverty rate among the disabled population is 35.4%, which is approximately 2.5 times that of the non-disabled population (14.2%).

The imbalance in gender-related household responsibilities is severe.

In terms of gender equality indicators, the division between the workplace and the family in South Korea remains significant. The report indicates that women spend 11.5% of their day on household chores and family care, which is 2.8 times that of men (4%).

Even in "dual-income" families, the amount of housework undertaken by the wife is 2.9 times that of the husband. What is even more noteworthy is that in families where women are the main breadwinners of the household, the time spent on housework by the wife (11.1%) is still 1.5 times that of the husband (7.4%), reflecting the deep constraints of traditional gender roles on Korean society.