Koreans work 8 hrs. & 42 mins. a day

Koreans normally go to bed at 11:26 p.m. on weekdays and sleep an average of 7 hours & 47 minutes a day, while a total of 1 hour & 33 minutes are spent eating three meals. In addition, the average Korean works 8 hours & 42 minutes a day and devotes 5 hours to personal activities. Out of 20 employed people, only 1 works 5 days a week. The Korea National Statistics Office revealed on the 26th the results of the first-ever study of how Koreans spend their days. The study began last September and covered 42,973 individuals over age 10.

This study, which will be conducted every 5 years, will analyze the sleep, eating, work, study, travel, courtship and hobby habits of Korean people and categorize the results by sex, age and region. The average time workers spent traveling to and from work was 1 hour & 12 minutes. For Seoul area workers, the daily commute consumed 1 hour & 20 minutes, 31 minutes longer than the 49 minutes average for the South Chungchong and South Cholla provinces.

Regarding education, elementary school students studied an average of 7 hours & 20 minutes a day, while middle school students spent 8 hours & 52 minutes and highschoolers 10 hours & 7 minutes, or 42% of the day, hitting the books.

The study showed 90% of Koreans watched at least 10 minutes of TV a day, with the average viewing time ranging from 2 hours & 47 minutes on weekdays to 3 hours & 54 minutes on Sundays.

As for reading newspapers, men were found to read more than women and the unemployed more than the employed. Of the men surveyed, 28% read newspapers for an average of 39 minutes on weekdays and 41 minutes on Sundays. Those who used computers for more than 10 minutes per day spent an average of 1 hour & 26 minutes on weekdays and 2 hours & 6 minutes on Sundays on their computers.

66.4% of Koreans used the computer for 2 hours & 24 minutes on Sundays.