Anchor: Nearly four out of five South Koreans saw political discord between the nation’s conservatives and its progressives as the major source of social conflict last year. That’s according to the latest survey from the statistical agency, carried out months before the president briefly put the country under martial law.
Choi You Sun has the details.

Report: New data shows that the South Korean people perceived political discord between conservative and progressive forces as the biggest social conflict last year.

According to a 2024 social indicator report released by Statistics Korea on Tuesday, 77-point-five percent of South Koreans picked disagreement between conservative and progressive forces as the most serious social conflict.

Although the 2023 figure was higher at nearly 83 percent, the latest data was compiled in August and September 2024, well before the December 3 martial law incident.

Discord between the poor and the middle class emerged as the second-largest conflict at 74-point-eight percent, followed by friction between laborers and employers at 66-point-four percent.

The statistics agency also found that 21-point-one percent of South Korean adults aged 19 or older felt lonely, up two-point-six percentage points from the previous year.

The country’s population, meanwhile, peaked last year at 51-point-75 million, with people aged 65 and older making up 19-point-two percent of the total.

By 2072, the population is expected to plummet to around 36-point-22 million people, with older adults accounting for 47-point-seven percent of the total.

The number of households increased by 350-thousand on-year to 22-point-73 million in 2023 amid the rise in single-person households, while the number of households led by adults over age 65 jumped 323-thousand to five-point-66 million.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.