Convenience stores and fast food chains have rapidly grown in South Korea in line with a rising number of people who dine or drink alone, while pubs have been on a steady decline, data showed Thursday.
Among 1.46 million who owned small retail businesses, 32,096 operated convenience stores as of May, up 11.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the National Tax Service.
Industry officials attribute a continuous rise in single-person households to their fast expansion, citing growing sales of alcohol, instant noodles and ready-cooked meals at convenience stores in the evening.
The number of fast food establishments also rose 7.5 percent on-year to 32,225 in May, as solo diners preferred them to sit-down places.
Convenience stores and fast food chains grew at the fastest pace in Sejong, a central administrative city that has a high ratio of government officials who live separate from their families in big cities, the tax agency said.
In contrast, the number of local pubs, where people usually hang out together, fell 5.1 percent to 58,149 over the period, with the change more palpable in the Seoul metropolitan area, it noted.
Market watchers say the shrinking size of families has contributed to the latest dining trend. They expect the changing demographics in Asia's fourth-largest economy to reinforce the trend down the road.
According to Statistics Korea and the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, one-person households were tallied at 5.07 million in 2015 to account for 27.1 percent of the total, up from 15.5 percent in 2000. (Yonhap)
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