Educational Spending Reaches 12% of Household Spending

Educational spending of urban households has more than doubled in the past decade.

As private education spending has grown much faster than the household income every year, a total educational spending claimed a record 12 percent of monthly spending at an urban household in 2007. The share was 10.9 percent back in 1997. The figures come from a report titled “Korean Society’s Index in 2007” released by the Korea National Statistical Office.

▽ Spending 160,000 Won per Month on Private Education

The statistical agency announced yesterday that an average Korean household in urban areas earned 3.67 million won a month and spent 2.84 million won. Also, its monthly education spending reached 272,391 won.

The money spent on private education (private institution fees, study facility fees, costs for overseas study, and expenses for purchasing learning materials required by private institutions) reached 162,839 won a month, or 7.2 percent of a household’s monthly spending. In other words, spending on private education is 1.5 times larger than that on public education (tuition fees, expenses for learning materials and stationery).

In 1997, a household spent 1.48 million won per month. Its monthly educational spending reached 160,000 won and its spending on private education amounted to 70,000 won. In short, spending on private education accounted for a mere 4.9 percent of the entire household spending.

Tuition fees have increased by approximately 30,000 won from 65,526 won to 97,356 won in the past decade, but its share in household spending has rarely changed from 4.4 percent to 4.3 percent.

Expenses for learning materials have rather decreased from 20,561 won to 8,936 won and those for stationery have also fallen from 3,789 won to 3,260 won for the past ten years.

Statistics also showed that 82.8 percent of high school graduates went to university last year. The figure stood at 60.1 percent ten years ago. In 2007, 99.9 percent of grade schoolers and 99.6 percent of middle school students advanced to higher learning institution.

▽ 10 Percent of Korean People is Aged 65 or Over

Out of 48.45 million Koreans, 48.1 million (9.9 percent) were aged 65 or over as of last year, the report showed. Life expectancy also went up by 0.6 year from 78.6 in 2005 to 79.2 in 2006.

The ratio of population aged 65 or over reached 7.2 percent in 2000. Since the Korean society became an aged society where more than 7 percent of its population is aged 65 or over, the ratio of the aged has gradually increased. If the recent trend remains unchanged, the aged will account for more than 20 percent of the Korean population by 2026.

The age at which men and women in Korea first marry has gradually increased: men’s age at first marriage increased by 2.5 years to 30.9 and women’s age at first marriage increased by 2.3 years to 27.8 in 2006. The age at which average women give birth to their first baby also increased by 2.5 years to 29.2 in 2006.

Even though the share of population aged 65 or over has grown by 2.7 percentage points from 7.2 percent to 9.9 percent between 2000 and 2007, the share of economically active population among the total population older than 55 increased a mere 0.5 percentage point from 45.5 percent to 46 percent over the same period.

The average sales price of urban housing jumped 3.1 percent from a year ago in 2007. The average price of low-rise housing also climbed 8.3 percent, that of detached houses jumped 2.9 percent and that of apartments grew 2.2 percent. In general, both the sales price and rent of urban housing have increased more than 40 percent over the same period. In the meanwhile, consumer prices soared 34 percent for the past ten years.

The biggest cause of death was cancer in 2006 when 134.8 out of 100,000 Koreans died of cancer. Lung cancer took most lives (28.8).

The report also showed that 40.19 million Koreans subscribed to mobile phone services in 2006. That means 83.2 out of 100 Koreans had mobile handsets. For the year, 23.12 million Koreans subscribed to fixed-line services.

In 2006, 108 Korean movies and 237 imported movies were released in Korea. But Korean movies drew 40 million more in audience in 2006 since the audience watching Korean movies reached 97.91 million while those watching foreign movies amounted to 55.49 million.

tesomiom@donga.com