Among dual-income couples raising children in South Korea, women spend one hour and 43 minutes more each day on housework and caregiving than men. The gap has narrowed by nearly half from three hours and 16 minutes a decade ago, but the burden still falls disproportionately on women.
Statistics Korea, now the National Data Office, released an analysis on the 19th of how young adults aged 25 to 39 use their 24 hours, broken down by marital status and whether they have children. The data came from the agency's time use survey. The aim was to quantify how marriage and child-rearing reshape the way young people allocate their time.
The gender gap was widest among married young adults with children. Married men with children spent an average of five hours and 29 minutes a day on work and two hours and 14 minutes on housework and caregiving. Women in the same group spent five hours and 45 minutes on housework and caregiving, and two hours and 14 minutes on work.
The gap remained clear even when looking only at dual-income couples. Married men with children in dual-income households spent two hours and 17 minutes a day on housework and caregiving, compared with four hours for women — a difference of one hour and 43 minutes.
The gap has narrowed sharply from a decade earlier. Over that period, men added 27 minutes of housework and 35 minutes of caregiving. Women cut housework by 30 minutes, while their caregiving time was unchanged.
Women also carried a heavier load in dual-income couples without children. Married women without children in such households spent one hour and 39 minutes a day on housework and caregiving, compared with one hour and five minutes for men, a difference of 34 minutes.
Across all young adults, time spent on housework and caregiving was longest among married people with children, followed by married people without children and then unmarried people. Married young adults with children spent two hours and 20 minutes more on caregiving and 20 minutes more on housework than their married counterparts without children. They spent one hour and 12 minutes less on work and 54 minutes less on leisure.
Related research points in the same direction. An analysis by Jeon Ji-won, a senior researcher at Seoul National University's Center for International Migration and Inclusive Society, reported by Newsis on May 15, 2026, drew on the National Data Office time use surveys for 2014, 2019 and 2024. It found that the housework and caregiving gap in dual-income households with children had narrowed by 77 minutes. Since the 52-hour workweek took effect, fathers in dual-income households increased time caring for children under 10 by an average of 26 minutes a day. Still, the absolute gap persisted, with wives spending an average of 181 minutes a day on housework and caregiving, against 78 minutes for husbands.
Ahn Hyung-joon, head of the National Data Office, said the analysis offers a detailed picture of how young people's use of time differs by marital status and whether they have children. The agency will continue to produce baseline data for policies that help workers balance work and family life and improve quality of life, Ahn said.