Last year, nearly 160,000 people in South Korea took parental leave, 16 times more men than 10 years ago.

According to the “Premary Evaluation of Parenting Leave Statistics in 2019” released by the South Korean Statistical Office on December 22, the number of people taking parental leave in South Korea last year was about 160,000, double that of 2010. In particular, the number of men taking parental leave has increased sharply, about 16 times.

Judging from the size of enterprises, the concentration of parents on parental leave in large enterprises continues. 63.3% of the employees who took parental leave after giving birth last year belonged to enterprises with more than 300 people. This phenomenon is more obvious for men, with 70.6% of men working in enterprises larger than 300 people.