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Almost half of households in Seoul are burdened with debts for housing or their children's education, according to a social indicators survey by the Seoul Metropolitan Government.
The "2007 Seoul Survey" was conducted in October of last year on 48,215 Korean and 1,100 foreign residents of the capital of at least 15 years of age. Altogether about 20,000 households throughout the city were polled.
The survey found that nearly half of households, or 47.9 percent, are in debt. The debts are mostly related to the purchase or rent of housing (64.1 percent), children's education (11.2 percent), living expenses (8.7 percent), and financial investments (7.8 percent).
The average size of respondents' homes is 83.6 sq.m, but most respondents said they would prefer to live in a 105 sq.m house.
Some 47.4 percent of the polled foreigners complained that the cost of living in Seoul is too high. Foreign respondents were generally satisfied with the residential environment (6.79 points, on a 0-10 scale) and urban safety (6.61 points).
But foreigners gave lower marks to interpersonal communications (5.39 points), foreign-language signboards at major facilities (5.09 points), and public servants' foreign-language fluency (5.05 points).
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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