Market Update: We break down the business implications, market impact, and expert insights related to Market Update: Debt held by wage workers rises 2.4% in 2024 on mortgage loan increase – Full Analysis.
Published: 24 Mar. 2026, 17:54
A passerby walks by a poster promoting home mortgage loans at a bank in central Seoul on Dec. 7, 2025. [YONHAP]
The average debt held by wage workers in Korea increased in 2024 from a year earlier, driven largely by growth in mortgage loans despite higher benchmark interest rates, the statistics agency said Tuesday.
The average bank and nonbank loans extended to paid workers in Asia’s fourth-largest economy stood at 52.75 million won ($35,200) per person as of the end of 2024, marking a 2.4 percent rise from a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of Data and Statistics.
Average mortgage loans held by workers rose to 22.65 million won in 2024, compared with 20.38 million won the previous year, the ministry said.
“Amid persistently high interest rates and policy efforts to curb household lending, most types of credit loans declined, while only mortgage lending increased,” Choi Jae-hyuk, a ministry official, said.
By lender type, bank loans to wage workers rose 4.7 percent on year in 2024, while nonbank loans declined 1.8 percent.
The data also showed that male wage workers held an average per capita debt of 65.8 million won in 2024, compared with 37.7 million won held by female employees.
By age group, workers in their 40s carried the highest average debt at 81.9 million won, up 5.1 percent from a year earlier. In contrast, workers aged 29 and younger saw their debt decline by 1.8 percent.
Yonhap