More Koreans consider themselves middle class and more young people are reading books and newspapers than two years ago, according a survey of 37,000 people aged 15 or older released by Statistics Korea on Monday.

The number of people who read at least one book over the past year increased from 58.9 percent in 2007 to 62.1 percent this year. Twenty-somethings are the biggest book lovers with more than 81 percent in the age bracket saying that they read, although the survey found that people tend to read less as they get older.

Slightly more men are readers than women, at 62.4 percent compared to 61.7 percent. And most readers with 67.2 percent preferred books in the fields of liberal arts and humanities.

Contradicting a popular belief that newspaper readers are on the decline, more than 71 percent of respondents said that they read newspapers more than twice in two weeks during the past month, up from 68.2 percent in 2007.

The survey also polled views on financial and economic matters, finding that more Koreans now see themselves as middle class and fewer are unhappy with the distribution of income in the country. A jump was seen in the number of young people who want to become civil servants or work for state-run companies rather than private businesses.

Around 4 percent believe that income is distributed fairly in Korean society, an increase from 2.3 percent in 2007, while those who think the distribution is satisfactory increased from 20.8 percent to 25.7 percent. The majority of respondents with 70.1 percent said income is distributed unfairly, although their numbers shrank from 76.9 percent in 2007.

The number of people who consider themselves middle class inched up from 53.4 percent in 2006 to 54.9 this year. Some 2.7 percent said they belong to the upper class, up from 1.5 percent.

More people are lending a hand to the underprivileged than before. The number of people who offered aid or made donations over the past year jumped from 31.6 percent in 2006 to 32.3 percent this year. More than 19 percent had experience volunteering, a big jump from 14.3 percent three years ago.