Daily life for older people in Korea is changing. Time spent sleeping has decreased, while time spent watching video content on smartphones or TV has increased. Among the elderly, dating with the opposite sex is increasingly done remotely through video calls and texts rather than in person, and eating alone, or "honbap," is becoming commonplace at the table.
According to the Statistics Korea special report "2025 Senior Statistics" and the feature "Time use and perception of daily time among seniors," released on the 29th, people 65 and older in 2024 spent an average of 11 hours and 59 minutes a day on essential activities such as sleeping and eating. They spent another 4 hours and 58 minutes on obligatory activities such as work and housework, and 7 hours and 3 minutes on leisure. Compared with the previous survey in 2019, time for essential and obligatory activities fell by 11 minutes and 1 minute, respectively, while leisure time increased by 12 minutes.
◇ Sleep down 14 minutes in five years, media viewing up 16 minutes
Older people slept an average of 8 hours and 14 minutes, down 14 minutes from 2019. By age group, those 65–69 slept 7 hours and 56 minutes, those 70–74 slept 8 hours and 5 minutes, those 75–79 slept 8 hours and 19 minutes, and those 80 and older slept 8 hours and 46 minutes, with sleep time increasing with age.
Notably, older people spent an average of 4 hours and 6 minutes a day watching media such as broadcasts and videos, up 16 minutes from five years ago. Of that, live TV viewing dipped slightly to 3 hours and 30 minutes, but time spent watching videos rose by 16 minutes to 19 minutes.
By age group, the times were 3 hours and 31 minutes for those 65–69, 3 hours and 54 minutes for those 70–74, 4 hours and 20 minutes for those 75–79, and 4 hours and 56 minutes for those 80 and older, showing that, as with sleep, time spent on media increased with age. A Statistics Korea official said, "In 2024, 97.2% of older people engaged in leisure activities through media."
◇ More eating alone, and dating is increasingly "remote"
Older people spent an average of 1 hour and 31 minutes a day eating, down 1 minute from five years ago. Over the past five years, the share of older people who ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner fell, but the share who ate alone rose for breakfast and dinner and declined for lunch.
Specifically, the share who ate breakfast and dinner as "honbap" rose to 41.1% (up 2.7 percentage points) and 31.3% (up 0.9 percentage points), respectively, while the lunch honbap share edged down to 34.1% (0.2 percentage points).
In dating with the opposite sex, remote interactions have grown in share over in-person meetings. In 2024, 65.9% of older people engaged in socializing, and they devoted an average of 45 minutes a day (down 1 minute) to such activities.
Of that, in-person socializing was 31 minutes, down 6 minutes from five years ago, while remote socializing such as via video calls rose 4 minutes to 12 minutes. The share of older people who socialized in person fell 4.7 percentage points to 45.4%, while the share who socialized remotely increased 9.2 percentage points to 37.1%. In particular, among those 80 and older, time spent on remote socializing doubled (from 6 minutes to 12 minutes).
Meanwhile, 40.2% of older people said they were satisfied with their leisure time, up 9.2 percentage points from 2019. The share dissatisfied with their leisure time fell 5.5 percentage points to 13.5%.