Gyeonggi Province Residents' Life Satisfaction Continues to Rise in Eighth Municipal Administration...Perception of Income Inequality Decreases

[Suwon Ilbo=Kim Gap-dong] Results have shown that life satisfaction among Gyeonggi Province residents in the eighth municipal administration has improved significantly. Since the survey began in 2021, there has been an upward trend, and perceptions of income distribution inequality have declined, with an overall positive trajectory continuing.

Gyeonggi Province announced the results of the '2025 Gyeonggi Province Social Survey' on the 20th. The province conducted a social survey on six sectors—welfare, housing and transportation, culture and leisure, education, income and consumption, and employment and labor—targeting 59,942 people aged 15 and above in 31,740 households across the province from August 20 to September 3 of last year.

The results are characterized by a gradual but consistent improvement from 2021 to 2025 across life satisfaction and happiness, leisure, culture, and tourism participation, living and safety perception, and overall economic sentiment.

When measuring satisfaction with one's life on a scale from 0 to 10 points, "average (5 points)" was highest at 33.7%, followed by 8 points (17%) and 7 points (16.7%), with an average of 6.3 points. In 2021, when the 10-point scale survey was introduced, the score was 5.8 points; in 2022, 6.3; in 2023, 6.2; and in 2024, 6.4 points.

Detailed analysis of satisfaction scores showed "average (5 points)" highest among males (34.2%), those aged 80 and above (42.1%), and single and two-person households (35.0% each), while 7 points was highest among males (17.0%), ages 15-19 (19.7%), ages 30-39 (19.0%), and four-person households (17.6%).

Based on the survey date, when asked how happy they were yesterday, the average was 6.5 points, which also increased compared to 6.0 points in 2021 and 6.4 points in 2023. Similarly, "average (5 points)" was highest at 24.6%, followed by 7 points (18.9%) and 8 points (16.8%). "Average (5 points)" was highest among males (25.7%), those aged 80 and above (33.7%), and single-person households (27.6%), while 7 points was highest among males (19.1%), ages 15-19 and 40-49 (20.2% each), and four-person and five-person or larger households (19.7% each).

The simultaneous rise in life satisfaction (average 5.8→6.3) and happiness (average 6.0→6.5) may have improved as individual subjective indicators have coincided with changes in overall daily life, such as increased external activities through leisure and tourism, improved residential environment satisfaction, and reduced experience of livelihood difficulties. However, the province explained that subjective indicators are influenced by various factors such as economy, health, and household conditions, and thus should be viewed as a complex result rather than attributed to a single factor.

Additionally, perception of "unequal" income distribution declined from 62.2% in 2021 to 59.1% in 2023 and 50.6% in 2025, while experience of livelihood difficulties eased from 46.0% to 39.6% in 2023 and 38.2% in 2025. While the perceived economy remains difficult, this shows that the intensity of distribution and livelihood pressures felt by residents has improved considerably. At the same time, the slight improvement and subsequent maintenance of the proportion of economic activity "working" (58.4%→64.5%→64.6%) can be interpreted as a signal supporting the improvement in perceived indicators.

Meanwhile, performance and sports attendance experience, which reached only 28% in 2021 due to the COVID-19 aftermath, rose significantly by 25.6%p in 2023 compared to 2021, then maintained 52.6% in 2025, approaching the pre-pandemic 2019 figure of 59.7%. This can be interpreted as a trend of normalization and expansion of cultural and leisure consumption accompanying the resumption and settlement of offline events.

Tourism experience similarly rose significantly by 23.4%p in 2023 compared to 2021, reaching 67.4% in 2025, actually surpassing the 2019 level (61.6%). The consistent ranking of "things to see and enjoy" (45.6%) as the primary reason for choosing tourism destinations supports the fact that tourism continues to be centered on experience and content consumption rather than mere travel.

A province official stated, "This social survey result demonstrates that leisure and tourism in residents' daily lives are expanding into actual behavior, and life satisfaction and happiness are also solidifying to a certain level," adding "We will continuously strengthen the utilization of the Gyeonggi Province Social Survey to continuously monitor changes felt by residents. We hope for active participation in the survey by residents for quality improvement."

Detailed statistics on the 2025 Gyeonggi Province Social Survey results can be found on the Gyeonggi Statistics website (https://stat.gg.go.kr/statgg/main.html).