The number of one-person households in the nation surpassed seven-point-two million to reach a new high last year.

According to a report released by Statistics Korea on Tuesday, the number of single-person households amounted to seven-point-22 million as of last October, up 184-thousand from the previous year.

The number of such households topped five million in 2015, six million in 2019 and seven million in 2021.

The report said that the number of working single-person households grew by some 204-thousand to reach around four-and-a-half million last year, accounting for more than 63 percent of all one-person households.

Representing an increase of one-point-three percentage points from 2021, the figure is the highest to be recorded since 2015, with the statistics agency explaining that those living alone sought out work with the return to normalcy after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, the report also estimated that five-point-eight million married-couple households, or around 46 percent of the 12-point-seven million in total across the nation, were dual income, the most since 2015.