Anchor: New data finds nearly 32 percent of males in South Korea age 15 or older smoke every day. That’s the second-highest rate among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Our Bae Joo-yon has the details.
Report: According to data released by Statistics Korea on Friday, 31-point-six percent of males age 15 or older in South Korea smoked every day as of 2017. After Turkey, that's the second-highest rate among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD) member states.
The agency, however, found only three-and-a-half percent of females age 15 or older in the country smoked every day, the lowest in the OECD.
The significant gender gap suggests there are negative cultural stereotypes operating in society against women who smoke.
The agency was quick to add, however, that smoking prevalence among men is continuously declining in all age brackets. In particular, a sharp drop was recorded among men in the highest income group.
Between 1998 and 2017, the smoking prevalence among upper class men plunged 35-point-seven percentage points while the rate among men in the middle class slipped between 25 and 28 percentage points.
As of 2017, smoking prevalence among adult females has remained low -- between six and seven percent -- but is steadily rising with women in their 20s and 30s.
As for teenage boys, some 14 percent of those in high school and nearly four percent in middle school were estimated to be smokers as of 2018, while the figures were five percent and two percent, respectively, for teenage girls.
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.