Child Abuse and Suicide Increase... Moon Administration, Declining Quality of Life

Statistics Korea's 'Quality of Life in Korea 2020 Report'... 23 out of 71 Indicators Worsened
Proportion of Elderly Living Alone Continues to Increase

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Sehee] It has been revealed that the quality of life is deteriorating in various areas of society. Both the rate of child abuse victimization and the suicide rate have increased simultaneously.

According to Statistics Korea's 'Quality of Life in Korea 2020' report released on the 13th, among 71 statistical indicators related to the quality of life of the people, 63 indicators were updated last year, and the improvement rate was 63%. Forty indicators improved, while 23 indicators worsened.

As of 2019, the rate of child abuse victimization was 381 cases per 100,000 children, an increase of 80 cases from 301 cases the previous year. The rate of child abuse victimization has been rapidly increasing since it started at 72.5 cases in 2013.

The proportion of elderly people aged 65 and over living alone is also continuously increasing. The rate of elderly living alone in 2020 was 19.6%, marking an all-time high. The number of elderly living alone aged 65 and over increased significantly from 543,787 in 2000 to 1,589,371 in 2020. Additionally, the suicide rate was analyzed to have continued increasing since 2017, reaching 26.9 per 100,000 population in 2019.

On the other hand, indicators such as the employment rate and fine dust concentration worsened. The employment rate decreased from 60.9% in 2019 to 60.1% last year, and the proportion of housing rent in monthly income worsened from 15.5% in 2018 to 16.1% in 2019.

Subjective life satisfaction also declined from 6.1 points in 2018 to 6.0 points in 2019 on a 10-point scale. Furthermore, fine dust concentration worsened from 23㎍/㎥ in 2018 to 24㎍/㎥ in 2019.

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