Nearly 9 in 10 middle-aged Seoul residents care for a parent or a child, and almost half do both at once, a new city survey shows.
The findings come from the first measurement of the Seoul Middle-Aged Quality of Life Index, presented Tuesday at a policy forum held at the Korea Press Center in central Seoul. The index was developed jointly by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul50Plus Foundation, a city-funded body supporting residents in midlife transitions.
Of those surveyed, 88.1 percent said they were caring for a parent, a child or both. The share caring for both generations simultaneously was 48.4 percent, rising to 62.1 percent among those aged 50 to 54.
Kye Bong-oh, a sociology professor at Kookmin University who presented the results, said caregiving showed a relatively weak correlation with income and employment, and should be treated as a standalone area of policy support rather than folded into jobs programs.
What separated the satisfied from the dissatisfied had less to do with employment than with housing and family status. Average life satisfaction scored 3.18 points out of 5, and the gap between those with jobs and those without was just 0.06 point. Satisfaction varied by as much as 0.69 point according to housing tenure, 0.65 point by income level and 0.57 point by marital status.
Homeowners scored an average 3.31 points, while those renting monthly scored 2.62. Married respondents averaged 3.33, compared to 2.76 for those unmarried. Households of three or more scored 3.28 compared with 2.78 for those living alone.
Higher earnings did not translate neatly into contentment. Average monthly household income was 6.62 million won ($4,870), but only 20.9 percent said they were satisfied. Even in the top income quartile, the satisfaction rate was about 21 percent.
A similar gap ran through attitudes toward policy. While 63.9 percent said support programs should be expanded, only 22.6 percent said they had felt any actual benefit, a difference of 41.3 percentage points. Asked what they needed, respondents most often pointed to placement in socially oriented jobs (77.7 percent), exercise programs designed for their age group (75.7 percent) and job training and reemployment counseling (75.6 percent).
The index covers 12 areas and 75 indicators, from household finances and housing to caregiving and digital adaptation. The survey polled 2,058 Seoul residents aged 40 to 64 in June. The city plans to treat this year as the baseline and track annual changes.
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said the city would expand its job academies for middle-aged residents, currently running at five campuses, to all 25 districts.
"The middle-aged are grouped under one name, but their experiences and what they need going forward differ from person to person," Oh said. "We will look closely at who needs what kind of help and respond with policies that fit the many different lives they lead."
yoohong@heraldcorp.com
