The income gap between urban and rural workers increased with the average monthly wage for city workers in 2002 reaching W2.6 million, a 10.8 percent increase from last year, while the average monthly rural wage was W1.99 million, a 3.6 percent increase from last year. The gap in monthly wages was approximately W636,000 this year, up from W464,000 in 2001.

The consumption of tobacco and alcohol decreased slightly, as on the average, adults over 19 years of age were found to consume 63 bottles of soju (Korean alcohol) and 101 bottles of beer annually, and 7.8 cigarettes a day. Compared to last year's index, this is an 11 percent decrease in soju consumption and a 0.4 percent decrease in beer consumption. Although on a daily basis Korean smokers had had 0.6 cigarettes less last year, the money they spent on cigarettes actually increased by W39, because of an increase in tobacco taxes.

Less people got married and more people got divorced. There were 320,000 marriages in 2002, 14,000 less than the number of marriages last year. However, the number of divorces increased 15,000 to 135,000. Other related data on marriages showed that the average age of "first-time" brides and grooms has risen to 26.8 and 29.6, respectively. And the average age of divorcees has also gone up to 36.7 for women and 40.2 for men.

The number of tertiary school students have increased more than threefold (3.4 times) since 1980, and comparing student populations, humanities and social sciences majors have increased 8.3 percent, while education majors decreased eight percent. The proportion of science related majors is currently approximately 42 percent, which is about the same as 20 years ago.

The number of citizens older than 65 has increased and as of July 2002, they numbered 47.640 million, a 0.63 percent increase from last year, and accounted 7.9 percent of the whole population. According to NSO estimates, in 2026, more than one fifth of the population will be over 65.

The household savings rate decreased to 17.1 percent in 2002, the lowest since 1975. Experts say that this is a result of a 7.6 percent increase in consumption rates from last year.

Koreans are among the most telecom-savvy people in the world with 63 percent of people over the age of six using personal computers, and on average, spending 14 hours in front of a computer a week. Also 61 percent use cellular phones.

Crime rates increased while automobile accidents decreased. Overall crime rates increased 6.3 percent from last year with the number of robbery and sex related crimes, up 8.1 percent. However, the number of automobile accidents decreased 10.3 percent leaving 8,097 people dead and 386,539 injured. The NSO said that this was still high compared to other OECD members.

Voter turnout decreased with those casting ballots in the 16th Presidential Election dropping to 70.8 percent, a 9.9 decrease from the 15th Presidential Election held in 1997. (Heo In-jung, njung@chosun.com )