A survey has shown that the young generation in South Korea has very little trust in the government and the judicial system.
The Financial Times (FT) reported on the 17th that 64.8% of South Koreans aged 15 to 29 do not trust the government, based on several analyses of Gallup's opinion poll conducted worldwide on 70,000 people from 2023 to 2024.
This is the fifth highest figure among 30 countries analyzed by FT. Greece had the highest distrust rate towards the government among the young generation at 86.9%, followed by Italy (68.4%), the United States (66.1%), and the United Kingdom (65.3%), with South Korea in fifth place.
In contrast, only 16.2% of the young generation in Switzerland said they do not trust the government, and Lithuania (29.4%) and Finland (30.6%) also demonstrated higher trust in the government. The OECD average was 50.4%.
The percentage of South Korea's young generation who said they do not trust the judicial system was 59%, the second highest after Greece (68.4%). Distrust in the military was at 32.4%, ranking third after Greece (44.8%) and Germany (39.3%). The percentage who indicated they do not trust the electoral system was also high at 35.1%, ranking tenth, and was higher than the OECD average (31%).
Among the youth, 26.5% expressed dissatisfaction with the freedom enjoyed in life, making it the fourth highest. Also, 23.4% reported that they had no enjoyable experiences the previous day, ranking seventh. In contrast, 50.6% stated they felt stressed the day before.
The percentage of those who said they feel "not respected" was 11.5%, and 27.8% expressed dissatisfaction with the opportunities to make friends, indicating a relatively high figure.
Areas where South Korean youth felt a high level of satisfaction included affordable and manageable urban housing, public transportation, roads, urban economic improvement, urban healthcare, and quality of life improvement.