S. Korea found to have severe “happiness gap”

Posted on : 2018-12-03 17:43 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
People with less education and income tend to fall into “happiness disadvantaged class”
Civic demonstrators hold a press conference in Seoul on Oct. 17
Civic demonstrators hold a press conference in Seoul on Oct. 17

One out of every five adults in South Korea is a member of the “happiness disadvantaged class,” a recent survey found. These individuals believe that they are less happier than the national average, their situation is not better than the past, and it won’t improve in the future, either. Groups that were disproportionately represented in the happiness disadvantaged class were the poorly paid and educated, people in their 60s and above and men in their forties and fifties.

These were the results of an in-depth analysis of Koreans’ perceived happiness and unhappiness factors per group in a report titled “Research Toward Developing a National Happiness Index” that was submitted to the Economics, Humanities and Social Research Council by a team of researchers from the Korea Development Institute (KDI) and Kim Seok-ho, a professor of sociology at Seoul National University.

 the UN’s International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
the UN’s International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

The research team interviewed 2,000 Koreans aged 19 and above for a survey that asked respondents about their subjective level of happiness. After assessing their current level of happiness on a scale from 0 to 10, respondents were asked to compare their happiness five years in the past to five years in the future.

Of the 2,000 respondents, 20.2% (403) said that their happiness has not improved from the past, are currently less happy than the average person and are not hopeful about the future, either. 2.4% (48) of respondents said that they were unhappy in the present (though less so than in the past) and that they would also be unhappy in the future. The research team grouped these into the happiness disadvantaged class. The percentage of perceived unhappiness was higher in families with less than 3 million won of monthly income and among individuals who had only graduated middle school or less. 56.7% (1,134) of respondents said that their current and future level of happiness was adequate.

“Action needs to be taken not only because the overall level of happiness is low in Korea but also because of the severe intergroup disparity in perceived happiness,” said Cho Byeong-gu, an analyst at the KDI who led the research team. In the 2018 edition of the World Happiness Report, which the UN releases on an annual basis, South Korea had a happiness index of 5.875, which ranked 32nd among the 34 countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In a survey that measured the distribution of happiness between 2012 and 2015, South Korea ranked 96th among 157 countries being surveyed, revealing a severe “happiness gap.”

A similar pattern can be seen in the “happiness index” that was produced by a questionnaire about happiness and satisfaction recently presented to 1,000 Koreans aged 19 and above by Yeo Yu-jin and Kim Mi-gon, analysts with the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA).

A survey about levels of satisfaction in seven aspects of life – including values, place of residence, health and work – resulted in an average happiness index of 6.33 points (out of 10 possible). The research team categorized those with a low level of happiness as “happiness impoverished” and called for the government to focus on policies that could raise their level of happiness. These researchers calculated the “median happiness level” (6.46 points), which is reminiscent of the median income, an index used to ascertain the relative poverty rate.

After defining the happiness impoverished as being those whose level of life satisfaction is less than 75% of the median happiness level, the researchers determined that 16.5% of respondents fit the bill. The researchers estimated that low-income earners, the low-educated, the elderly, the unemployed and people living alone are between 1.74 and 4.88 times more likely to be in danger of “happiness impoverishment” than the average Korean.

By Hwang Ye-rang, staff reporter

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]

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