[Newsmaker] Does Korea need a ‘loneliness minister’?

[The Korea Herald Yoon Min-sik] (전략) In 2018, the Korean Clinical Psychology Association conducted a survey on 317 member psychologists to diagnose how lonely South Koreans are, to which the doctors gave an average of 78 points out of a 100. The respondents picked “increasing individualism” (62.1 percent) as the leading cause of the phenomenon, followed by factors like rising tension between classes and economic slump at 54.6 percent and 48.3 percent, respectively. 

In a report conducted the same year by local polling company Hankook Research, 7 percent of respondents said they “consistently feel lonely,” while 19 percent said they frequently felt so. About 41 percent of the single respondents said they frequently or consistently felt lonely, while the figure dropped to 18 percent for couples. 

The studies all point to an increasing feeling of loneliness among South Koreans, and other research from across the world indicates this can present an actual health hazard.(후략)

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