Single-person households in South Korea are rapidly shifting their financial assets away from savings and fixed deposits toward investment products such as stocks and ETFs. The number of people taking out loans to invest in stocks and ETFs — a practice known as "debt investing" — has also risen sharply.
According to the 2026 Korea Single-Person Household Report released Sunday by KB Financial Group's Management Research Institute, savings and fixed deposits accounted for 28.3% of single-person household financial asset portfolios this year, down 7.8 percentage points from 36.2% in 2024.
By contrast, the share of domestic and overseas stocks and ETFs rose 6.1 percentage points over the same period, from 15.0% to 21.1%. The share of virtual assets also expanded, from 2.2% to 3.5%.
The financial institutions holding these assets have also shifted — from banks to brokerages. The share of assets held at commercial banks fell from 45.6% to 43.1%, while the share at securities firms rose from 22.6% to 28.6%.
Savings and fixed deposits still had the highest product ownership rate at 63.9%, though that figure fell 9.9 percentage points from 73.8% in 2024. Ownership of overseas stocks and ETFs rose from 24.1% to 34.4%, while domestic stocks and ETFs climbed from 40.4% to 45.7%.
The trend is expected to continue. Domestic stocks and ETFs were the most commonly cited product respondents intended to subscribe to within the next year, at 42.1% — a jump of 18.7 percentage points from 2024. Intent to invest in overseas stocks and ETFs also rose 13 percentage points, from 24.8% to 37.8%.
Debt-fueled investing in stocks and ETFs is also on the rise. Among single-person households carrying loans, 34% said they had used borrowed funds to invest in financial products — up 5.2 percentage points from two years ago. The share currently managing financial products with loan funds rose from 11.3% to 15.5%.
The average amount invested using loans was about 30 million won ($20,500). Men accounted for 42.4% of those who had engaged in such investing, roughly double the 21.7% rate for women. The institute said leverage investing "is concentrated among men rather than being a phenomenon across single-person households as a whole," adding that "as loan-backed investing expands, the financial risk facing male single-person households is likely to grow."
The report was based on a survey of 2,000 economically active single-person households between the ages of 25 and 59 living in major cities nationwide, conducted from Feb. 25 to March 23.
yeongdai@heraldcorp.com
