Definition of Middle Class
The ideal characteristics of the middle class assumed by Koreans in general are quite different from the reality.
On June 12, researcher Lee Jun-hyup at the Hyundai Research Institute announced the result of his survey about the ideal aspects of the middle class. The 817 respondents defined a family earning 5.15 million won (US$5,059) and spending 3.41 million won (US$3,350) a month as a middle-income household. Additional answers included an ideal of four family outings a month costing 123,000 (US$120) won each time, total family assets of 660 million won (US$648,324), a house with 115.17 m2 priced at 370 million won (US$363,454), donations of 2.5 percent of the total annual income, and 3.5 volunteer activities a year.
However, the average reality of the respondents was much different from the answers, which means the ratio of middle-income households is very low in Korean society. The survey participants said that they earned 4.16 million won (US$4,086) and spent 2.52 million won (US$2,474) per month. The average number of family outings was 3.2 times a month, each costing only 63,000 won (US$61.89).
Their average total assets were 380 million won (US$373,277) per household, and the price and size of their houses wwere 220 million won (US$216,152) and 87.78 m2 on average. “The donation-to-income ratio was just 1.1 percent and the frequency of volunteer activities was 3.1,” the researcher added.