"No Place to Turn for Help in Crisis"... Social Isolation Surges in Two Years

Obesity Rate Increases and Volunteer Participation Halves
Impact of COVID-19 Restrictions on Outdoor Activities

Due to the spread of COVID-19, social isolation and interpersonal trust have significantly worsened over the past two years as disconnection from the outside world increased. Volunteer participation rates have halved in two years, and obesity rates continue to show an increasing trend.

The Statistics Development Institute published the 'Quality of Life in Korea 2021' report on the 15th, containing these findings. This survey aims to comprehensively assess the quality of life of the people in terms of health, education, environment, and other qualitative aspects. Since most statistics are from 2020-2021, it reflects major social changes caused by COVID-19.

According to the report, the social isolation rate, defined as the proportion of people who have no one to turn to in times of crisis, was 34.1% at the end of last year, up 6.4 percentage points from 27.7% in 2019. Social isolation had been decreasing since 2013 (32.9%), but sharply increased last year due to restrictions on face-to-face activities caused by COVID-19.

Men (36.6%) showed higher isolation rates than women (31.6%), and especially those aged 60 and over had a rate of 41.6%, meaning 4 out of 10 people in this age group have no one to rely on in times of crisis.

Interpersonal trust dropped by 15.9 percentage points from the previous year to 50.3% in 2020. Between 2015 and 2019, it hovered around 65%, but due to COVID-19, relationships were severed and the risk of interpersonal infection increased, leading to a decline in interpersonal trust.

Obesity rate, a key indicator representing overall health and a major cause of chronic diseases, has risen sharply. The obesity rate increased from 29.2% in 2001 to 31.3% in 2005, and 33.2% in 2015, then jumped to 38.3% in 2020. This is a rapid increase compared to past obesity rates (below 35%). It is interpreted that obesity increased due to more remote work and restrictions on outdoor activities caused by COVID-19.

The obesity rate for men surged to 48.0% in 2020 from 41.8% the previous year, while the obesity rate for women remained below 28% with little change.

The household debt ratio rose by 12.5 percentage points from 188.2% in the previous year to 200.7% in 2020. This ratio has been steadily increasing since 138.5% in 2008. The increase has been more pronounced since 2015 (162.3%). Compared to other countries, South Korea's ratio is lower than Norway, the Netherlands, and Denmark, but higher than Canada, the UK, Japan, and the United States.

Volunteer participation rates dropped to 8.4% last year from 16.1% in 2019, nearly halving. After increasing from 14.6% in 2003 to 19.9% in 2013, the rate has been steadily declining. It is presumed that volunteer activities were also curtailed due to COVID-19. The average number of volunteer activities per participant also decreased from 8.0 times in 2019 to 7.1 times last year.

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