Which City Is the Best Place to Live in Korea? Residents Choose ‘Gijang-gun’

Busan Gijang-gun Ranks No.1 Among 229 Local Governments Nationwide as the 'Best City to Live'

Joint Survey by Seoul National University Community Well-being Research Center, Local Autonomy Research Institute, and JoongAng Ilbo

2nd Place Seoc

Top 5 rankings in the community well-being survey conducted across 229 local governments nationwide.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] Among local governments nationwide, which city do residents rate as the best place to live? Asking the people who live there would be the most convincing approach.

There are various perspectives and criteria for residents to feel that a place is ‘good to live in,’ but one survey revealed that Gijang-gun in Busan ranks ‘top,’ drawing attention to the charm of this city.

Gijang-gun recently ranked first in the ‘Community Well-being Index (CWI)’ survey, which evaluates the best places to live among 229 local governments nationwide, focusing on ‘well-being,’ meaning quality of life.

The Community Well-being Index (CWI) survey was jointly conducted by the Community Well-being Research Center at Seoul National University Graduate School of Public Administration, the Local Autonomy Research Institute, and JoongAng Ilbo. It surveyed 16,555 adults residing in 229 regions nationwide (226 basic local governments, Sejong City, Seogwipo City, and Jeju City) from November 16 to December 14 last year, assessing residents’ evaluations of community well-being and presenting the results numerically.

The well-being community ranking was derived by aggregating residents’ evaluations of six types of capital: ▲human development, ▲economy, ▲society, ▲environment, ▲infrastructure, and ▲governance.

This time, Gijang-gun received a score of 7.39 out of 10, making it the region with the highest Community Well-being Index among 229 cities nationwide.

Following were Seocho-gu in Seoul (7.33 points), Gwacheon-si in Gyeonggi (7.33 points), Jeungpyeong-gun in Chungbuk (7.32 points), and Songpa-gu in Seoul (7.15 points).

In the survey, Gijang-gun was highly rated for providing resident-centered administrative services. Gijang-gun operates a Pledge Fulfillment Citizen Evaluation Group and formed an Honorary Social Welfare Officer Promotion Team to strengthen the ‘human welfare safety net,’ which contributed to its high score.

Previously, in 2019, it also ranked first among county-level regions in the Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s regional safety index evaluation.

Oh Gyu-seok, the mayor of Gijang-gun, expressed his excitement, saying, “Ranking first in a survey selecting the best place to live is the greatest joyful news as a local government head.”

Mayor Oh said, “This happy report is the result of the sweat and passion of 174,545 Gijang-gun residents and about 900 public officials,” adding, “I confidently tell the entire nation to move to Gijang-gun if they want to experience a happy life.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.