Nearly half of South Korean men in their 30s are obese, while women have longer legs compared to 10 years ago, a nationwide survey showed on Monday.

According to the survey on 6,413 South Koreans conducted last year by the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards, 52 percent of men aged between 35 and 39 had a body mass index of 25. A BMI of 25 or more is regarded as obese in South Korea.


On the female side, the survey showed that 46 percent of women aged 60 and over surpassed the 25 BMI threshold.

The study also showed that South Korean women’s legs have been getting longer over the past decade, as the ratio of the length of their lower body to their overall height rose to 0.460 in 2015 from 0.452 in 2004 in women aged between 20 and 24, with the figure also increasing in other age groups.

For men, however, their leg-to-height ratio remained unchanged over the same period.

The state-run standardization agency carries out the survey every five years.

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)