Chinese nationals were the happiest, while Japanese nationals were the least happy, with Chinese respondents grading the quality of life in Seoul at 73.4 points compared to only 56.7 points for the Japanese, the lowest average among the countries polled. (image: socialwalker/flickr)
SEOUL, May 25 (Korea Bizwire) — As a not-insignificant three percent of Korea’s population is now composed of foreign nationals, Seoul Metropolitan Government conducted a survey on 2,500 foreigners living in the capital about their quality of life in the city, in October 2014.
According to a report published on May 24, those polled ranked their quality of life, on average, at 69.7 on a 100-point scale.
Collectively, foreign nationals gave the highest score of 76 points to Seoul’s residential neighborhoods. The city’s urban safety was also appreciated, as it received an average of 74.4 points.
Respondents gave scores of 71.7 and 69.7 to Seoul’s social environment and educational environment respectively. It is estimated that Seoul’s efficient public transport system and a relatively good air quality compared to other Asian megacities might have contributed to the high point allocation.
However, survey respondents ranked the quality of human-to-human communications relatively poorly, with a score of 61.7 points.
Chinese nationals were the happiest, while Japanese nationals were the least happy, with Chinese respondents grading the quality of life in Seoul at 73.4 points compared to only 56.7 points for the Japanese, the lowest average among the countries polled. Respondents from European and English-speaking countries, Vietnam and Taiwan gave scores somewhere in between.
Foreigners also felt that costs were rather high in Seoul, as they said that prices were 132.3 percent of the prices in their own countries. Respondents from Asian countries evaluated Seoul prices to be 167.2 percent of prices in their native countries, while respondents from English-speaking countries and European countries answered 104.8 percent and 101 percent respectively.
By J. W. Choi (summerchoi@koreabizwire.com)
