What’s a Seoulite Like?

By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter

In Seoul, a city with a population of 10.4 million, the average resident is a 37.6-year-old married office worker with a bachelor’s degree and works 46.4 hours per week, according to a survey by Seoul City Hall and Statistics Korea released on Monday.

They take the subway to work and earn 3.6 million won as their monthly wage and spend 2.8 million won per month with 610,000 won covering food and 580,000 won going to private education.

Six out of 10 households earn between 2 million and 4 million won monthly, which makes them the so-called middle class.

The number of Seoul residents in their 20s or under is on the decline while the population of the older generation is increasing.

Every day there are 264 births, 106 deaths and 197 marriages. In 2009, 91,000 babies were born in Seoul, around a 3,700 decrease from the previous year.

There are 26,000 foreigners registered in Seoul, a five-fold jump from 10 years ago.

Each household is composed of 2.48 members on average and the number of single-person households takes up a 35 percent share, a 66-percent increase from 1999.

More than 42 percent of Seoul’s housing consists of apartments, while houses only account for 7 percent.

The rest are multi-household houses.

About 47 percent of households are in debt, with the biggest portion being mortgage loans.

It is scary how much this resembles my family.