Policy Report
Welfare
Employment
Education
🔥 75
2026-02-09
2025 Survey on Koreans' Consciousness and Values
Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism
1Koreans' overall happiness score fell to 6.4/10 in 2025, down 0.4 from 2022.
2Health (41.8%) is the top life value; necessity of children dropped to 44.1%.
389.7% perceive severe economic polarization, showing high demand for equality.
📋 Key Findings
🔍 Background
Conducted since 1996, this survey tracks shifts in public values amidst rapid social change. The collected data serves as a foundation for government policy implementation and humanities and social science research.
📌 Key Points
The happiness score dropped to 6.4, and compensation (41.3%) is the most important factor when choosing a job. The usage rate of generative AI services is 55.2%, with 64.3% of respondents worried about worsening job imbalances due to AI adoption.
📝 Implications
Traditional family values are weakening while values respecting individual choice are spreading. Resolving economic inequality and establishing measures for job coexistence in the AI era are analyzed as key future social tasks.
📝 Impact on Daily Life
With rising preferences for retirement age extension (50.9%) and re-employment systems (28.0%), policies to enhance job stability for the elderly are expected to expand. For youth, counseling support for grades (21.4%) and future careers (19.5%) will likely be strengthened.
📚 Glossary
층화확률비례추출법 (Cheunghwa Hwakryul Birye Chuchulbeop)Stratified probability proportional sampling; a precise statistical method that divides the population into groups and samples according to the size of each group.
생성형 AI (Saengseonghyeong AI)Generative AI; artificial intelligence technology capable of autonomously creating new content such as text or images.
임금피크제 (Imgeum Peak-je)Wage peak system; a system that guarantees or extends the retirement age of employees in exchange for reducing their wages after a certain age.