A record number of Koreans withdrew from their retirement pension funds to purchase homes last year, as housing costs continued to squeeze household finances.
According to the "2024 Retirement Pension Statistics" released by the National Data Agency on Thursday, 66,531 people made early withdrawals from their retirement pensions last year, up 4.3% from 63,783 in the previous year. The total amount withdrawn reached 2.73 trillion won ($1.9 billion), a 12.1% increase from 2.44 trillion won the year before. Early withdrawals had been declining since 2019 but have now risen for two consecutive years since 2023.
By purpose, home purchases accounted for the largest share at 37,618 people, or 56.5% of all early withdrawals—the highest number since records began. This was followed by housing rentals at 16,955 people (25.5%) and debt rehabilitation proceedings at 8,727 people (13.1%). Housing-related purposes, including purchases and rentals, accounted for more than 80% of all withdrawals.
Despite the increase in early withdrawals, total retirement pension reserves grew 12.9% year-on-year to 431 trillion won. By plan type, defined benefit plans comprised the largest share at 49.7%, followed by defined contribution plans (26.8%) and individual retirement pensions (23.1%).
The number of enrolled workers also rose 2.9% to 7.354 million. Among 13.086 million eligible workers, 53.3% were enrolled in retirement pension plans, up 0.2 percentage points from the previous year.
Meanwhile, enrollment in Individual Retirement Pension (IRP) accounts continued to grow. IRP participants reached 3.592 million, up 11.7% year-on-year, while accumulated funds rose 30.3% to 99 trillion won. Among new enrollees, self-employed individuals comprised the largest share at 39.9%, followed by workers under the severance pay system (38.8%) and public pension participants (16.6%).
