Climate change and the spread of infectious diseases are seen as the top threats by the majority of people in 14 economically advanced nations surveyed by the Pew Research Center. 　In similar surveys conducted by the Washington-based center in 2013, 2016, 2017 and 2018, the chief threats were seen as climate change and terrorism. 　For the latest survey, Pew questioned 14,276 adults living in Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spai

　Record-low numbers of South Koreans are expected to visit their hometowns or travel during the upcoming Chuseok holiday amid lingering coronavirus fears, a poll showed. 　In the survey of 1,000 adults nationwide conducted by Gallup Korea early last week, 81 percent said they had no plans to leave their homes for more than one night during the Chuseok holiday, the Korean version of Thanksgiving, which runs from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2 this year. 　According to Gallup Korea, only 16 percent of th

　Racial minorities accounted for 78 percent of COVID-19 deaths under the age of 21 in the United States between February and July, a government report said. 　Out of 121 deaths among under-21s, 45 percent were among Hispanics, 29 percent among blacks and 4 percent among American Indians or Alaskan Natives, according to the study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 　Together, these groups represent 41 percent of the US population under 21. 　Overall, mortality among children a

　More than 3.09 million Korean women live alone, with growing numbers engaged in economic activities, government statistics showed. 　According to Statistics Korea, one-woman households accounted for 50.3 percent of the total 6.14 million single-person households this year. 　The statistics agency expects the number to continue to rise to reach 3.23 million by 2025 and 3.65 million by 2035. 　Overall, the total number of women in South Korea stood at 25.83 million this year, making up 49.9

　Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos topped Forbes’ list of richest Americans for the third year in a row, while US President Donald Trump’s ranking dropped as the coronavirus pandemic slammed his office buildings, hotels and resorts, the magazine said. 　The aggregate wealth of the Forbes 400 list rose to a record $3.2 trillion, as the richest Americans continued to do well even though the pandemic has devastated the economy, which is short about 11 million jobs compared to where it was in

　South Korean food delivery applications saw their sales hit a fresh high in August as more people refrained from dining out and stayed home amid the stricter social distancing scheme, data showed. 　The combined transactions made through the country‘s four major food delivery applications came to 1.2 trillion won ($1 billion) in August, up 28 percent from a month earlier, according to the industry tracker WiseApp. 　Sales from the four applications reached a whopping 7.6 trillion won

　South Korean exports of ice cream swelled more than 11 percent in the first eight months of the year despite a slump in the country’s overall overseas shipments, official data showed.  　Overseas shipments of Korean ice cream products came to $47 million in the January-August period, up 11.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. 　The United States was the largest export destination for Korean ice cream, followed by China, Canada, Vi

　South Korea’s tourism income hit a 17-year low in the second quarter of this year due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, government data showed. 　For the April-June period, the country posted $1.19 billion in tourism income, down 78.6 percent from $5.57 billion over the same period last year, according to data from the Korea Tourism Organization. 　From three months earlier, it tumbled 65.5 percent from $3.46 billion. 　It is the lowest quarterly amount since 2003, when South Korea's

　Major South Korean companies saw their overseas sales tumble nearly 20 percent in second quarter of the year during the coronavirus pandemic, data showed. 　Combined overseas sales of the country’s top 100 firms by revenue totaled 146.3 trillion won ($123 billion) in the April-June period, down 19.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Federation of Korean Industries. 　The tumble marks a sharp turnaround from the first quarter, when their sales edged up 0.65 pe

　The number of self-employed people in South Korea has fallen at a far faster pace in 2020 than last year, data showed. 　South Korea had 5.548 million self-employed people as of the end of July, down 127,000 from the same month a year earlier, according to data from the Korea Small Business Institute and Statistics Korea. 　The decrease is far higher than the figure from a year earlier. (Yonhap)

　Public attitudes about the economy have become bleaker as the coronavirus pandemic continues to weigh globally, according to a Pew Research Center survey released recently. 　Overall, a median of only 31 percent of adults across the surveyed nations assess their country’s current economic situation as good, while more than two-thirds say conditions are bad. 　In Germany, while the majority continue to view the economy positively, the percentage who view it negatively has more than dou

　Retail sales in South Korea advanced 4.4 percent in July from a year earlier as online platforms enjoyed a spike in demand for groceries and home appliances amid the new coronavirus pandemic. 　The combined sales of 26 major offline and online retailers reached 11.46 trillion won ($9.67 billion) last month, up from 10.98 trillion won a year earlier, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. 　Online platforms led the growth, with their revenue advancing 13.4

　LG Chem became the largest supplier of electric vehicle batteries in the first seven months of this year, data showed. 　Based on the global usage of EV batteries, LG Chem’s market share stood at 25.1 percent in the January-July period, compared with 10.6 percent a year earlier, according to market tracker SNE Research. 　The data showed that 13.4 gigawatt-hours of energy from LG Chem’s EV batteries was used in the January-July period, compared with 6.8 gigawatt-hours a year ear

　South Korea’s coffee imports expanded more than 5 percent in the first seven months of the year despite the coronavirus outbreak, data showed Tuesday. 　Imports of coffee stood at 90,355 metric tons in the January-July period, up 5.37 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. 　It marks the first time that Korea’s coffee imports exceeded the 90,000-ton level in the first seven months of any year. (Yonhap)

　More than two-thirds of South Korean small and medium-sized enterprises have suffered setbacks in their sales following the coronavirus outbreak in February, a poll showed. 　According to a nationwide survey of 1,000 SMEs with sales of 100 million won ($84,300) or more, 77 percent of respondents said their sales had dipped since the COVID-19 outbreak, compared to a year earlier. 　Those companies reported an average decrease of 39.2 percent in sales over the cited period. 　Of the companies

　South Korea’s total fertility rate hit a record low of 0.92 in 2019, government data showed, in a clear warning to the nation’s economy that a population decline lies ahead. 　The total fertility rate refers to the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime. 　The 2019 figure is far below the replacement level of 2.1 that would keep Korea’s population stable at 51 million. It also represents a sharp drop from 1970, when the government began to compile relevan

　Home transactions in South Korea reached a new all-time high in July despite government measures to rein in soaring housing prices, data showed. 　The number of homes changing hands nationwide stood at 141,419 last month, up 110 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. 　The July reading was also up 2.1 percent from the previous month and is the largest monthly number since 2006, when data tracking began. 　In the first seve

　The number of foreigners overstaying in South Korea increased 10 percent on-year in May, as travelers and migrants were stranded by strict border controls around the world due to the novel coronavirus, data showed. 　The number of foreigners illegally staying in the country reached an all-time high of 396,654 in the month, according to the Korea Immigration Service. 　Of them, about 296,000, or 75 percent, were visitors who entered the country without visas for a 90-day stay. The number o

　The number of vehicle registrations in South Korea exceeded 24 million in the first half, helped by strong demand for environmentally friendly models, the Transport Ministry said. 　Accumulated auto registrations came to 24.02 million at the end of June, up 1.4 percent from 23.68 million at the end of December, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said in a statement. 　The first-half registrations showed that 1 in every 2.16 South Koreans owns a car, it said. 　Robust domes

　Samsung Electronics maintained its dominant status in the global DRAM market in the second quarter of the year, a report showed, as the pandemic drove demand for server chips. 　The South Korean tech giant’s market share in the global DRAM market stood at 43.5 percent in the April-June period, down 0.6 percentage point from three months earlier, while its revenue increased 13.8 percent to $7.4 billion over the cited period, according to data from market researcher TrendForce. 　Its