Nine out of 10 South Koreans feel climate change firsthand and are willing to accept any inconvenience caused by policies to solve the problem, a poll showed. According to the poll of 1,000 adults nationwide by a civic group, 89.2 percent answered that they actually feel the effects of the climate crisis and 88.5 percent expressed a willingness to accept the inconvenience of policies introduce...

China's birth rate plummeted to a record low last year, official data showed, as analysts warn that faster-than-expected aging could deepen economic growth concerns. Beijing has been grappling with a looming demographic crisis as it faces a rapidly aging workforce, slowing economy and the country's weakest population growth in decades. The birth rate of the world’s second-biggest economy sli...

South Korea’s exports of kimchi hit an all-time high last year thanks to its growing popularity, data showed. Outbound shipments of the spicy Korean traditional side dish came to a record $159.9 million in 2021, resulting in a trade surplus of $19.2 million in the sector, according to the data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. It is the first time in 12 years that Sou...

Four out of 10 self-employed people in South Korea are considering closing their businesses due to sluggish sales amid the long-enforced strict social distancing rules during the coronavirus pandemic, a survey showed. According to the survey of 500 people operating restaurants, retail and other service businesses by the Federation of Korean Industries, a major business lobby group, 40.8 percen...

Foreign direct investment pledged to South Korea's free economic zones surged 42.8 percent in 2021, led by the overseas investment in bio and other new industry sectors, data showed. The country’s nine FEZs received $1.31 billion worth of FDI commitment last year, up from $910 million a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. It is the firs...

Americans read an average of 12.6 books during the past year, according to a new Gallup poll released. That represents the lowest number of books read compared to any previous survey dating back to 1990, Gallup said. In three polls conducted between 2002 and 2016, Gallup surveys showed that Americans read an average of 15.2 books per year. The results are based on a Dec. 1-16 poll of a random...

By some counts, President Joe Biden can lay claim to a banner first year in office. But the numbers also reveal plenty of setbacks. Most Americans got their COVID-19 vaccines, but other countries fared better. Economic growth surged; so did inflation. America exited Afghanistan, but the war ended with a chaotic evacuation and a suicide bombing that killed 13 US troops. Pandemic aid and infras...

People in Seoul picked infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, as the most dangerous health hazard they face, followed by fine dust and climate change, a survey showed. Infectious diseases topped the list of dangerous health and environmental factors with 4.21 points on a 5-point scale in an online survey of 1,000 Seoul residents and 321 experts on public health and the environment, according t...

South Korean artists released an average 3.8 artistic works to the public in 2021, a sharp drop from 7.8 pieces in 2018, attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic, a government survey showed. According to the Culture Ministry’s triennial survey on 5,000 people in the art industry, the classical music scene was the busiest in 2021 out of 14 art sectors, with 6.4 public works released on average, fo...

Shopping on social media such as Facebook, TikTok and WeChat is going to grow three times faster than sales from traditional channels over the next three years, according to a study released by Accenture. Social commerce, defined as transactions that take place entirely within the context of a social-media platform, will reach $1.2 trillion by 2025, up from $492 billion in 2021, the consulting...

The South Korean webtoon industry saw its combined sales top 1 trillion won ($843.6 million) for the first time in 2020, government data showed. The total sales of the local web-based comic market amounted to 1.05 trillion won in 2020, up 64.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the data by the Culture Ministry and the Korea Creative Content Agency. It is the first time that the annual...

Seven out of 10 South Koreans chose China as the biggest security threat to their country among the neighbors, excluding North Korea, a survey showed. According to a survey by the state-run Korea Institute of National Unification on 1,006 adults, 71.8 percent of the respondents picked China as the biggest threat to the nation, followed by Japan with 21.1 percent and the United States with 6.3 ...

The number of South Korean workers who took time off to take care of their children rose 3.7 percent in 2020 from a year earlier amid more government support for parental leave, government data showed. A total of 169,345 workers took parental leave to take care of their children in 2020, up 6,089 from the previous year, according to the preliminary data from Statistics Korea. The figure was ...

South Korea’s imports via e-commerce reached a new all-time high in 2021 as more people purchased foreign goods online, government data showed. The country’s e-commerce imports stood at $4.15 billion in the first 11 months of last year, up 25.7 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. The amount for the 11-month period surpasses the full-year figure ...

The percentage of Americans who identify as Christian dropped 15 percentage points over the past 14 years, while those who consider themselves religiously unaffiliated increased by 14 percentage points, a Pew study released indicates. Pew‘s National Public Opinion Reference Survey found that the majority of Americans - 63 percent - consider themselves Christian, down from 78 percent in 2007. M...