Aside from the demographic shift, Korean youth, especially, students in junior and high schools, have been found increasingly unhappy. (image: Minjujigi/flickr)
SEOUL, July 12 (Korea Bizwire) – The National Statistical Office has recently published data on the youths of Korea: The population of youths is in a steady decrease and their life quality is not getting better.
According to a report “2014 Statistics on Youths,” the proportion of youths in Korea’s population this year was 19.5 percent–the statistics defined young adults between the age of 9 to 24 as “youths” as stipulated in the Framework Act of Juveniles.
While the total 2014 population of Korea has increased 2.1 percent from 2010 to 50,424,000, the youth population has decreased 6.0 percent over the same period, to 9,838,000.
The population of youths in Korea has been in a steady decline since 1978, when the youths accounted for more than one third of the population (36.9%). The statistics office has projected that by 2060 the number of youths will come down to only one tenth (11.4%) of the total population.
On the other hand, the study showed that one out of ten youths (11.2%) in Korea has thought about committing a suicide, at least once in the past year. The main reasons were, for teenagers in age from 13 to 19, ” stress from school work” (39.2%) and “domestic problems” (16.9%), and for those aged between 20 and 24, the main reasons were “financial hardships” (27.6%) and “problems at work” (18.7%).
The main concerns for the youths were found to be “academic performances” (35.9%), “career” (22.1%), and “looks & health” (17.8%). Examined by age group, those youngsters in the age group of 20-24 were most concerned over “career” (41.4%), and the teenagers between 13 and 19 were most worried about “academic performances” (50.4%).
On a separate note, 62.9 percent of male youths answered “marriage is a must,” whereas only 45.6 percent of female youths answered so, showing a clear disparity in perception of matrimony between genders.
Suicide in South Korea
South Korea has a very high suicide rate compared to other developed countries, mainly due to elderly people in rural areas committing suicide to lessen the burden of their children. However, proactive government efforts has began to substantially reduce suicide rates in 2012, with a 11% decline from the previous year and returning back to the lowest level since 2008. The toll of suicide deaths in South Korea has more than doubled in the last decade. Park and Lester note that suicide rate in South Korea rose from 6.8 per 100,000 people in 1982 to 28.4 in 2011. However, proactive government efforts has began to substantially reduce suicide rates in 2012, with a 11% decline from the previous year and returning back to the lowest level since 2008. (Wikipedia)
Written by J. H. Kim (jhkim@koreabizwire.com)
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