More than half of middle-aged people were indebted last year, data showed Tuesday, in the latest sign of growing household debt in South Korea.

The data compiled by Statistics Korea showed that 56.1 percent of people aged between 40 and 64 borrowed money from banks or other financial institutions in 2018, up 0.8 percentage point from 2017.

Their median debt amount stood at 50.96 million won ($43,836) in 2018, according to the data. 



For those who own homes, the median debt amount jumped to 88.46 million won in 2018, compared with 22 million won for those who do not own homes, the data showed.

The data indicated that more households took out loans to buy homes.

South Korea's overall household debt has been on a steady increase for years, reaching a record high of 1,572 trillion won as of end-September.

Separately, the data showed that middle-aged people accounted for 39.7 percent of South Korea's 50 million population as of 2018.

Among middle-aged people, 62.9 percent were employed as of October 2018.

The data showed that the average monthly income of 819,000 out of 1.42 million middle-aged people who were hired last year came to 2.73 million won. (Yonhap)