80% of Seoul's elderly living alone are women

Korean woman

ALMOST eight out of 10 elderly people living alone in Seoul are women, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said on Tuesday.

The city conducted a census on senior citizens aged 65 or older who lived alone without family over the past three months, aimed at assessing their welfare needs.

According to the survey on 214,506 citizens registered as single family households in Seoul, 82,766 were found to live alone and 77 per cent of them were women.

While 66.1 per cent said they didn't have their own house, less than half of them, or 36,000, responded they had an income. The monthly income per person was 460,000 won (S$506), just one-third of the national average.

Almost 80 per cent of the respondents said they were suffering from more than one medical condition. As they were allowed to give multiple answers, the most common conditions included arthritis, hypertension and backache. -- KOREA HERALD/ANN