SEOUL, Oct. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s youth are facing mounting mental health challenges, with child and adolescent suicide rates climbing to their highest level in more than two decades, according to a government report released Wednesday. The “Child and Youth Quality of Life 2025” survey, published by the National Data Office, found that [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — South Koreans in their 20s have seen the weakest real income growth of any generation over the past decade, according to a new analysis, underscoring concerns over job quality and rising living costs that continue to weigh heavily on the country’s youth. The Korea Economic Association (HanKyungHyup) reported on [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — Fewer than half of South Koreans believe unification with the North is necessary, though support has edged higher compared with a year ago, a new survey shows. The 2025 Unification Awareness Survey, conducted by Seoul National University’s Institute for Peace and Unification Studies and Gallup Korea, found that 41.1 [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — The use of payment services employing passwords, biometric data and other authentication methods rose more than 11 percent in the first half, reflecting the growing trend of contactless commerce, central bank data showed Monday. The daily average value of simple payment transactions reached 1.046 trillion won (US$745.77 million) in [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — The relative poverty rate among South Korea’s retired population reached the highest level among member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), data showed Monday. For those aged 65 and older, the relative poverty rate stood at 39.8 percent in 2023, up 0.1 percentage point from [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — Suicide has overtaken cancer as the leading cause of death for South Koreans in their 40s, underscoring the intensifying pressures on the country’s core working-age population, according to new government data. Figures released by Statistics Korea show that South Korea’s overall suicide rate rose to 29.1 deaths per 100,000 [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — South Koreans believe they will need about 3.5 million won ($2,600) a month to live comfortably in retirement, but most expect to secure only two-thirds of that amount, according to a new survey by KB Financial Group’s research institute. The study, released Sunday, polled 3,000 people aged 25 to [...]
SEJONG, Sept. 26 (Korea Bizwire) —South Koreans earn the most at age 45 but begin running deficits by 61, as consumption outpaces income in later life, according to new government data that underscores the economic strains of an aging society. The National Statistics Office said Wednesday in its release of the 2023 National Transfer Accounts [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — Delinquency rates at South Korea’s major credit card companies hit an 11-year high in the first quarter amid an economic slowdown, the central bank said Thursday. The delinquency rate on loan assets at the major card firms came to 2.3 percent as of end-March, the highest since 2014, according [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s reliance on U.S. pharmaceuticals deepened in 2024, with imports topping $1 billion for the first time, government data showed Tuesday. The trend, fueled by surging demand for cancer treatments and rare disease drugs, has stirred warnings about supply vulnerabilities at a time of heightened trade and tariff tensions [...]