Soaring ‘solo economy’ a challenge for Thai policymakers
Thailand’s government and business sector must prepare for the growing trend of single-person households, or the so-called solo economy, the state planning office has warned.
In its special report on the solo economy, the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) cites data showing the rising trend for young-generation individuals to stay single, leading to a rapid growth in single-person households.
For example, global market researcher Euromonitor projects a 128% rise in single-person households worldwide from 2020 to 2030.
Thailand has over 7 million single-person households, according to the National Statistical Office. The proportion of Thai single-person homes soared from 6.4% in 2012 to 26.1% in 2022.
The NESDC cited economic data from 2018 to 2022 showing single-person households drove solo-economy growth in four main ways:
- Development of vertical residential units: Single people constitute 24% of condominium owners this year.
- Spending by single people to kill loneliness: They tend to spend more on travel and communications, which comprise an average 27.6% of their overall spending. Spending on pets and plants is also high, with 270,000 single-person households owning pets last year, a rise of 32.9% from 2019.
- Tourism: Single-person households accounted for about 400,000 trips in 2019 before that figure slumped during Covid. It recovered to 210,000 trips last year.
- Life insurance: Last year, 4.9 million single-person households (68.8%) bought life insurance.
The NESDC urged the government and businesses to address the rising solo economy with the following measures:
- Government should promote financial literacy to boost single persons’ financial security after retirement.
- Government and social enterprises should join hands to support elderly single people who live alone. The NESDC found that one-third of single persons are over 60 years old and many are at risk of social isolation and depression.
-The government should boost safety measures to make it safer for single persons to live and travel alone.
- The private sector should be spurred to develop products for single-person households, such as smaller cooking utensils.
