Middle class squeezed as household income drops: survey

About 37% said they read newspapers every day


Koreans who perceive themselves as middle class are on the decline as more households experienced a continued slide in income, a state-run survey said Thursday.

Statistics Korea said its nationwide survey from a pool of 38,000 people found that people who thought of themselves as middle class shrank to 52.8 percent, down 2.1 percent from its 2009 figure.

More categorized themselves in the low-income basket at 45.3 percent, up 2.9 percent from two years ago. 

(Yonhap News)

The darkened perceptions of their financial status came with an increased optimism about the future, however, with 28.8 percent of respondents saying that they can move up to the upper class, up 6.9 percent from two years back.

“More people felt their income has declined in the past two years and this was particularly the case with senior citizens aged 50 years and older. The economic recession must have played a role here, but there is a growing hope that things will get better,” an official at the state agency said.

Of the pool, 25.2 percent said their income shrank over the past year, compared with 18.1 percent of the respondents who said otherwise. Those unhappy with their level of income amounted to 49.1 percent, up 2.5 percent from 2009. Only 11.7 percent said they are satisfied with their income level, down 2.4 percentage points from two years ago.

Among newspaper readers, 39.6 percent said they read papers nearly every day. A total of 92.9 percent from households with a monthly average income of more than 6 million won said they read the news on a regular basis.

By Cynthia J. Kim (cynthiak@heraldcorp.com)