Unpaid Housework Valued at 582 Trillion Won in 2024, Women Contribute 2.7 Times Men

Unpaid domestic work such as preparing meals, caring for children and cleaning was worth more than 580 trillion won last year, equivalent to about 23% of nominal gross domestic product, data showed.

According to the National Data Agency’s “Household Production Satellite Account” released on the 29th, the value of unpaid domestic work in 2024 was estimated at 582.4 trillion won. That was up 96.9 trillion won, or 20.0%, from five years earlier.

Total household production activity was valued at 809.4 trillion won, an increase of 158.02 trillion won, or 24.3%, from 2019. Unpaid domestic work accounted for a large share, but its ratio to GDP was 22.8%, down 1.0 percentage point from five years earlier.

By category, household management — including cleaning and meal preparation — was the largest at 459.5 trillion won, followed by caring for family and household members at 113.6 trillion won, and volunteering and participation activities at 9.3 trillion won. Within household management, the fastest growth rates were seen in caring for pets and plants (60.4%), cleaning and organizing (30.2%), and food preparation (27.0%).

In family care, care for minors fell 1.8%, while care for adults rose 20.8%, an analysis said, reflecting the impact of an aging population.

By gender, the value of women’s unpaid domestic work was estimated at 425.8 trillion won, about 2.7 times men’s 156.6 trillion won. However, the growth rate was higher for men at 35.3% than for women at 15.2%, pointing to a trend of increased male participation in housework.

Per capita, unpaid domestic work was valued at 11.25 million won, up 20.0% from five years earlier. The figure was 6.05 million won for men and 16.46 million won for women, leaving a wide gap.

By employment status, the value of domestic work by those not employed was 297.4 trillion won, higher than the 284.9 trillion won for those employed, though the growth rate was higher among employed people. By marital status, married people accounted for 511.8 trillion won versus 70.6 trillion won for unmarried people, but the increase was faster among the unmarried.

The household production satellite account is a set of statistics that assigns a monetary value to domestic work that is not traded in markets and therefore not included in GDP. It estimates the value by applying occupation-based wages and population factors to unpaid work hours, helping supplement conventional income statistics.