According to BC Card’s analysis, sales in all areas decreased last month compared to the same month of the previous year, and especially in the education sector, the highest decrease of 26.7% was recorded among all the areas and industries analyzed. (Refer to the above image)
It was also confirmed that the sales in the education sector generated in the first quarter of this year expanded the decline by decreasing by more than 20% each month compared to the same month of the previous year, by 22.8% (January), 24.0% (February), and 26.7% (March), respectively.
According to the results of the annual household trend survey recently released by Statistics Korea, the proportion of education expenditure among the consumption expenditure items by income quintile[1] decreased in all quintiles except the 3rd quintile. (Refer to Table 1)
While the educational expenditure per household in the 3rd to 5th quintiles, which are the middle and upper income levels, increased by up to 25.9% compared to the same period of the previous year, the educational expenditure in the 1st and 2nd quintiles, which have relatively lower average incomes, decreased by 52.4% and 19.7%, respectively, compared to the same period of the previous year, showing an increasing gap in educational expenditure according to income level. (Refer to Table 2)
As a result of analyzing the cause of the sales decline in the education sector by period using BC Card data, it was confirmed that the overall sales in 2023, when prices began to rise in earnest, decreased by 11.1% compared to 2022, and sales in the first quarter of this year plummeted by 24.5% compared to the same period of the previous year. (Refer to Table 3)
The main reasons for the plummeting sales in the education sector in the first quarter of this year were confirmed to be largely influenced by sales decreases in ▲arts and sports academies (57.8%↓) ▲afterschool academies (44.9%↓) ▲foreign language academies (42.1%↓) ▲reading rooms (39.3%↓).
[1] [As of 2023.4Q] 1st quintile (bottom 20%) average income: 1.178 million won, 5th quintile (top 20%) average income: 10.804 million won
