A survey found that the level of happiness of Koreans is among the lowest in the world.
According to the ‘World Happiness 2023’ report released by Ipsos on the 14th (local time), Korea’s happiness level in January this year was 57%, ranking 31st out of 32 countries. This is down from 71% in December 2011 and 62% in May 2013.
Happiness level was measured with the question ‘Are you happy under all circumstances?’ The responses were divided into ‘very happy’, ‘quite happy’, ‘not very happy’, and ‘not happy at all’.
Only 57% of Koreans answered ‘very happy’ or ‘quite happy’. This is far below the 32-country average of 73%. The only country with a lower level of happiness than Korea was Hungary (50%).
The country with the highest level of happiness was China (91%). It was followed by Saudi Arabia (86%), the Netherlands (85%), India (84%), Brazil (83%), United Arab Emirates (81%) and Mexico (81%). The United States is 14th (76%), France is 15th (74%), Thailand is 20th (71%), Spain is 23rd (69%), Germany is 27th (67%), Japan is 29th ( 60%) were.
It was found that the factors that people around the world felt the greatest satisfaction were family and friend relationships, such as ‘children’ (85%) and ‘relationship with spouse’. On the other hand, factors with less satisfaction were found to be ‘the country’s socio-political situation’ (40%) and ‘the country’s economic situation’ (40%).
Koreans also found that they felt the greatest satisfaction in ‘children’ (78%) and ‘relationship with spouse’ (73%). On the other hand, ‘economic situation of the country’ (21%) and ‘social and political situation’ (23%) were lower than average. In particular, Korea had a particularly low level of satisfaction than other countries in ‘feeling the meaning of life’ (34%) and material wealth (39%).
Also, only 61% of Koreans answered that they have a close friend or relative they can rely on when they need help. This is less than the 72% average of 32 countries.
In addition, 41% of Koreans said that they had ‘recently suffered a very painful situation’, and 35% said that they were ‘in a difficult situation that they could not solve alone’.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.