Seoul: South Korean families' spending on private education for their children has jumped by more than 60 percent over the past decade, government data showed Sunday.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS) for the Ministry of Data and Statistics reported that South Korean households spent just under 29.2 trillion won (US$20.2 billion) on private education in 2024, up by 60.1 percent from 2014. This increase marks the fourth consecutive year of rising private education expenditures.

The ministry noted that while the costs of sending students to hagwons, or private academic institutions, have been increasing, families also have more financial resources to allocate towards extra lessons outside of school. This additional spending is partly due to a steady rise in the number of dual-income households, which often results in parents sending their children to after-school hagwons during working hours instead of leaving them at home alone.

The data from KOSIS highlighted that education spending for elementary school students experienced the most significant increase, escalating from about 7.6 trillion won in 2014 to 13.2 trillion won in 2024, a 74.1 percent rise. Over the same period, spending for middle school students grew by 40.7 percent to 7.8 trillion won, while expenditures for high school students increased by 60.5 percent, reaching 8.1 trillion won.

KOSIS also revealed that a family with at least two unmarried children spent an average of 611,000 won per month on private education during the third quarter of 2025. This amount represented 12.6 percent of such families' total monthly expenditures, second only to spending on food.

Since KOSIS began tracking private education spending in 2019, when it accounted for 11.5 percent of monthly household expenditures, the figure has climbed steadily, reaching 12.8 percent by 2024. For 2025, the percentage was 13 percent in the first quarter and hit a record high of 13.5 percent in the second quarter.

Experts indicate that frequent changes to college admission policies and the resultant uncertainty are driving parents to rely more heavily on private education.