The Korea Local Administration Review

The increase in single-person households is a global phenomenon, not just in Korean society. In Korea, single-person households have continuously increased, accounting for 33.4% as of 2021, becoming the most common household type, and are expected to continue to increase in the future. Despite the increase in single-person households, the single-person household support policies provided by local governments are still insufficient. Therefore, our study conducted an empirical analysis of the current status of the single-person household support ordinances and the influencing factors in the adoption of the ordinance, targeting basic local governments. As a result, basic local governments were insufficient in introducing the single-person household support ordinance, and the higher the ratio of female single-person households in basic local governments, the lower the ratio of old single-person households, the more divided governments, and the more areas located in the metropolitan area, the higher the possibility of adopting the single-person household support ordinance. These results could provide important implications for establishing regionally tailored single-person household policies to meet the continuously increasing demand for single-person households.