Last year, the average height of first-year male high school students in Korea was 172.9 cm, while female students measured 161.3 cm. The average weight for male first-year students was 70 kg, while female students averaged 56.9 kg. One in three students was either overweight or obese.
The Ministry of Education released the '2024 Student Health Examination Sample Statistics Results' on the 30th. This analyzed the results of physical development and health examinations conducted at 1,076 selected elementary, middle, and high schools across the country.
Looking at height development, first-grade male students measured 122.5 cm, fourth-graders 140.5 cm, first-year middle schoolers 161.5 cm, and first-year high schoolers 172.9 cm. For female students, first-graders measured 121.0 cm, fourth-graders 139.7 cm, first-year middle schoolers 157.5 cm, and first-year high schoolers 161.3 cm. The average height of male students decreased slightly across all ages compared to last year, while the average for female students remained similar.
For weight, first-year male students measured 25.3 kg, fourth-graders 39.2 kg, first-year middle schoolers 56.1 kg, and first-year high schoolers 70.0 kg.
Female students in first grade measured 24.2 kg, fourth-graders 35.8 kg, first-year middle schoolers 50.3 kg, and first-year high schoolers 56.9 kg. The average weight of first-year middle school male students decreased by 1 kg compared to last year, while the weight for first-year high school male students increased by 0.7 kg. The weight of fourth-grade and first-year middle school female students decreased slightly.
The proportion of obese students was 29.3%, showing a decrease for the third consecutive year. By school level, 30.8% were in high school, 29.4% in elementary school, and 27.5% in middle school. By region, the proportion of obese students was 33.1% in rural areas, 4.5 percentage points higher than the 28.6% in urban areas. The regional disparity decreased by 1.2 percentage points from the previous year (5.7 percentage points).
Vision and oral health conditions have worsened. The proportion of students with vision abnormalities was 57.04%, an increase of 1.05 percentage points compared to last year. Vision abnormalities refer to those correcting with glasses or having visual acuity of 0.7 or lower in either eye. Additionally, the proportion of students found to have cavities in dental exams was 18.70%, an increase of 1.43 percentage points from 17.27% the previous year.
Blood test results conducted on students diagnosed with obesity among fourth-grade, first-year middle school, and first-year high school students indicated proportions of students with issues in total cholesterol at 16.37%, triglycerides (TG) at 26.76%, and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol at 12.93%, which were similar to the previous year.
The report analyzing the 2024 Student Health Examination Sample Statistics will be made public on the fourth week of next month on the Student Health Information Center's website at schoolhealth.kr. The examination results will be used as a basis for students' physical development and health status, serving as foundational data for student health promotion policies.