The percentage of South Koreans who said convenience was more important than being eco-friendly has doubled in an annual survey last year, compared to the figure taken in 2018.
Some 23.2 percent of the respondents said they prioritized convenience in everyday life, while 54.2 percent said they would take actions for the environment even at their personal inconvenience, according to a 2025 survey by the Korea Environment Institute revealed Sunday. The survey was conducted on 3,008 people aged 19-69, from Sept. 24 to Oct. 15.
The results stood in stark contrast to those of a 2018 survey, where 70.5 percent said they would prioritize the environment while only 12 percent said personal convenience was more important.
Researchers attributed the change to the prolonged slump in household social and economic conditions, including inflation and high joblessness, along with discussions about the environment that have brought little palpable results.
Men were more likely than women to put priority on their personal convenience — 28.7 percent to 17.6 percent. Women were more likely to say environment comes first (61.5 percent) than men (47.2 percent).
Men were also more likely to say they did not have strong feelings about climate change — at 31.5 percent compared to 24.1 percent for women. Overall, 73.1 percent of respondents said they were anxious about the issue, 64.5 percent said they feel apologetic and 59.9 percent felt anger.
By age, the 19-29 group had the highest percentage of prioritizing convenience (36.2 percent), and lowest in placing higher importance on the environment (38.3 percent). The oldest 60-69 was the exact opposite, with 11.3 percent saying they prioritize convenience while 72.1 percent said environment was more important.
The survey did show that 83.5 percent of the respondents said the climate change had a significant impact on society, while 57.9 percent said it affected them personally. But the proportion of those expressing concern over the climate change has decreased from 89.5 percent in 2022.
But those who said climate change affected their personal lives had increased, from 56.7 percent to 66.5 percent in 2024, but dipped 8.6 percentage points in a year.
When asked if climate change was an important issue to them personally, 79.3 percent said yes in 2025, down from 83.7 percent in 2024.
"When you look at the severity of climate change and how (Koreans) perceive it, we can say that the public's awareness toward the issue has somewhat deteriorated," the researchers concluded.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
