Young Korean parents get 1.5 fewer hours of leisure a day than unmarried peers, survey finds

(ClipartKorea)

Married young adults in South Korea who have children spend more than three hours a day longer on housework and caregiving than their unmarried counterparts, while having about an hour and a half less leisure time, according to a government survey. 

Although the gender gap in domestic work has narrowed over the past decade as married fathers have taken on more household responsibilities, women in dual-income households still spend considerably more time on housework and caregiving than their husbands.

According to a report released Monday by the Ministry of Data and Statistics, Koreans aged 25 to 39 spent an average of 11 hours and 25 minutes a day on essential activities such as sleeping, eating and personal hygiene in 2024. They devoted another eight hours and 22 minutes to obligations, including work, housework and caregiving, and four hours and 13 minutes to leisure.

Compared with the survey conducted a decade earlier, time spent on essential activities rose by 16 minutes, reflecting increases in sleep, from eight hours to eight hours and 10 minutes, and personal hygiene and grooming, from one hour and 14 minutes to one hour and 28 minutes.

Time spent on obligations fell by 37 minutes, with work declining slightly from four hours and 17 minutes to four hours and 16 minutes, while housework and caregiving dropped from two hours and 28 minutes to one hour and 53 minutes.

Leisure time increased by 21 minutes over the decade, but the ways young adults spent their free time changed significantly. Time spent socializing and participating in social activities fell from one hour and three minutes to 48 minutes, while time spent watching live television broadcasts dropped from one hour and 19 minutes to 40 minutes.

By contrast, time spent watching online videos on platforms such as YouTube and over-the-top streaming services surged from just three minutes a day to 55 minutes. Time devoted to gaming and other recreational activities more than doubled, rising from 15 minutes to 34 minutes.

An agency official attributed the decline in housework and caregiving time and the increase in leisure to changes in marriage patterns, noting that more young adults are marrying later or remaining unmarried than they did a decade ago.

Time use varied considerably depending on marital and parental status. Unmarried young adults spent an average of four hours and 42 minutes a day on leisure, 89 minutes more than married young adults with children, who averaged three hours and 13 minutes. Unmarried adults also spent 49 minutes more on work, at four hours and 26 minutes a day, compared with three hours and 37 minutes for married adults with children.

The pattern was reversed for domestic responsibilities. Married young adults with children spent four hours and 15 minutes a day on housework and caregiving, more than three hours longer than the 52 minutes recorded by unmarried young adults.

Married young adults without children spent four hours and 49 minutes a day working and four hours and seven minutes on leisure — one hour and 12 minutes and 54 minutes more, respectively, than their counterparts with children. They spent one hour and 35 minutes on housework and caregiving, two hours and 40 minutes less than married young adults with children.

The gender gap in domestic responsibilities also persisted among dual-income households in which both spouses worked and had children. Women spent an average of four hours a day on housework and caregiving, compared with two hours and 17 minutes for men, a difference of one hour and 43 minutes.

Men spent five hours and 20 minutes a day working, an hour more than women, who averaged four hours and 20 minutes. The gender gap in housework and caregiving was therefore considerably larger than the gap in time spent working.

The ministry said that, compared with a decade earlier, men in dual-income households with children were spending about an hour more each day on housework and caregiving, while women's time in these activities had fallen by 30 minutes.

Although the gender gap in time devoted to domestic work and caregiving had narrowed by more than an hour over the decade, women continued to spend more time on these responsibilities than men, the ministry said.