A recent survey commissioned by the culture ministry showed that South Koreans value a mature democracy more than economic growth.

According to the survey, released Tuesday, 31-point-nine percent of respondents mentioned the need for a mature democracy when asked about their hopes for the country’s future image.

Twenty-eight-point-two percent said their greatest hope for the country is economic prosperity, with this answer falling to second place for the first time since the ministry began the polls in 1996.

Meanwhile, 46-point-nine percent said the country has a high level of democracy, while only 21-point-eight percent said it doesn’t.
 
Sixty-point-five percent of the respondents considered themselves middle class or higher in terms of household economic status, up 18-point-one percentage points from 42-point-four percent in 2022.

Fifty-one-point-nine percent said they were happy with their lives, as compared with 65 percent in the previous survey three years ago, and life satisfaction dropped from 63-point-one percent to 52-point-nine percent.

The first-ever poll of foreign nationals who had stayed in the country for at least two years showed that 55-point-nine percent said they were happy, and 56-point-one percent replied that they were satisfied.

Forty-three-point-seven percent of the foreign respondents said they had experienced discrimination in the country, of whom 52-point-nine percent mentioned their country of origin as the reason.

Kstat Research surveyed six-thousand-180 South Koreans and one-thousand-20 foreigners in the country aged 13 to 79 between August 15 and October 2.