Married young Koreans with children spend 3 hours 23 minutes more on housework and care than singles

Young South Koreans who are married with children spend 4 hours 15 minutes a day on housework and caregiving, 3 hours 23 minutes more than unmarried people their age, the National Data Office said Monday, citing its analysis of time-use surveys from 2014 and 2024.

The unmarried spent 52 minutes on housework and care, while married young people without children spent 1 hour 35 minutes. Among married people with children, men and women split their days more sharply than in any other group, with men spending more than five hours on work and women more than five hours on housework and care. Parents spent 49 minutes less on work and 1 hour 29 minutes less on leisure each day than their unmarried counterparts.

Even in two-income households, women carried more of the load. Married women with children spent 5 hours 17 minutes more than their husbands on housework and care when they were the sole earner, and 1 hour 43 minutes more when both partners worked. Women in two-income couples spent more time on work and less on housework and care than women who were sole earners, narrowing the gap with their husbands.

Over the decade, married fathers with children added about an hour a day of housework and care in both sole-earner and two-income households. Women's time fell 14 minutes in sole-earner couples and 30 minutes in two-income couples, cutting the gender gap by more than an hour in both household types.

"This analysis shows in detail how young people's use of time differs depending on marriage and whether they have children," Ahn Hyung-jun, head of the National Data Office, said in a statement. "We will continue to closely track changes in how people use their time through the time-use survey and provide the basic data needed for policy on supporting work-family balance and improving quality of life."

The surveys also recorded how young people's leisure has changed over the decade. Time spent watching real-time broadcasts fell 39 minutes a day and time spent socialising fell 15 minutes, while watching video through YouTube and streaming services rose 52 minutes and gaming and play rose 19 minutes.