In contrast, over the corresponding period of 2020 the tally for visitors from China far surpassed that for the US, at 707,302 to 216,312. Americans ranked third on the list of foreign visitors by nationality, after the 434,961 Japanese visitors. In 2019 and 2018 Americans were in fourth place, after Chinese, Japanese and Taiwanese. “US nationals overtook those from Taiwan, Japan and China, in ...

SEJONG -- Housing prices in Seoul have continued to renew their all-time highs this year, in addition to a surge over the past few years since the mid-2010s. Many apartment complexes in the capital have recorded a 100-150 percent increase in price between 2016 and 2020. According to KB Kookmin Bank and Naver.com, the average trading price of homes in Seoul reached 39.33 million won ($33,100) per...

The situation is mainly attributed to the record-breaking portion of single-person households -- 42.4 percent -- 1.89 million of the city’s 4.42 million households had just one member last month. Based on resident registration data, Seoul has many salaried workers or job seekers, who live alone. Its population per household is expected to further sink in the coming years in the wake of falling m...

SEJONG -- South Korea’s gasoline prices climbed to the highest in almost seven years, in line with a spike in international crude prices over the past month amid steeply rising demand for petroleum worldwide. The situation, which could worsen further, is expected to pose a tough burden to some manufacturers and households, as long as oil producers choose not to increase output. According the Ko...

This was the second-lowest figure (tied with the figure for February 2020) since January 2020, when COVID-19 initially hit the nation. The Index III, a relatively new method for calculation by the government, regards underemployed people -- those who work less than 36 hours a week and want to work more hours, as well as seasonal workers who are out of work for part of the year -- as unemployed. ...

Koreans in their 50s (8.61 million), 40s (8.18 million) and 60s (7.09 million) ranked first, second and third, respectively, among all age groups last month. They far outstripped those in their 30s at 6.74 million, those in their 20s at 6.7 million and those in their 10s at 4.72 million. Further, the tally for babies and children aged under 10 stayed at 3.8 million, a similar figure to those in ...

Given that the declining pace in the youth population portion was faster in Korea than in Japan (which has been posting the lowest figure for several years in the OECD) over the past four years, Korea will likely be outstripped by the latter as early as in the first half of 2022. Korea saw the portion of youth population fall by 1.2 percentage points from 13.4 percent in 2016 to 12.2 percent in ...

Korea’s lackluster figure placed the country 32nd of the 36 members. Of the total 38 members, the OECD has yet to compile or publicize the figures for Costa Rica and Luxembourg. Despite the pandemic situation, the economy of six members expanded more than 4 percent: Ireland (No. 1) with 6.3 percent, the UK with 4.8 percent, Portugal with 4.5 percent, Latvia with 4.4 percent, Estonia with 4.3 per...

Korea lagged far behind neighbors in the Asia-Pacific region: 71.3 percent was reported for women in Japan (12th), 71.7 percent in Australia (ninth) and 73.5 percent in New Zealand (sixth). Among emerging economies, Estonia placed No. 13 with 70.4 percent, Latvia (15th) was at 68.3, Slovenia (16th) hit 68.1 percent, Hungary (17th) had 67.8 percent, the Czech Republic (20th) marked 66.3 percent a...

The rebound in August, though the extent was meager, was somewhat attributed to a surge in the number of inbound visitors to study in universities or international schools, while the figure for inbound tourists remained in the doldrums. KIS data showed that the number of visitors for study increased more than 800 percent from 1,753 in July to 17,319 in August. Those included foreign students, wh...

The pace in the increase of tax wedge in Korea was the third-fastest among the 36 members of the OECD as of 2020 on-year. Of the total 37 members, Colombia was not included in the analysis. Korea placed next to Australia with a 0.416 percentage point growth and New Zealand with a 0.344 percentage point growth. While four more countries had a positive growth in the index, which indicates a highe...

Only 6.8 percent of the refugee families owned houses or land worth 300 million won or over. The findings showed 6.5 percent of defectors owned property worth between 200 to 300 million won, followed by 3.5 percent who had property valued at 150 to 200 million won. The next on the list were 5.5 percent with property of 100 million-150 million won, and 7.1 percent with property of 50 to 100 milli...

Four-member households were still far outnumbering three-member households by 4.21 million vs. 3.68 million in August 2011. But four-member households were overtaken by the latter in February 2017, with their gap widening to 3.41 million vs. 4 million in August 2021. Likewise, large families of five-member households or more continued to decline over the corresponding period. In contrast, the c...

The comparison of figures for 2019 and 2020 indicate that online shopping transactions were robust despite the lackluster economic indices in the wake of the novel coronavirus. By segment, agricultural, livestock and fisheries products posted growth of 242 percent during the July 2017-July 2021 period, from 182 billion won to 542 billion won, in online transactions. Turnover among online sellers...

The tough hiring market has particularly deteriorated job opportunities for college and high school graduates, according to official research on the economically active population. In July, the employment rate for people in their 20s stood at 58.6 percent, which contrasted from 75.3 percent for those in their 30s, 77.7 percent for those in their 40s and 75.7 percent for those in their 50s. The ...