By Yoon Ja-young
Staff Reporter
Seven out of Koreans feel they are too busy. They are spending less time reading newspapers or books compared with five years ago, and women are still doing most of the housework, a recent survey showed.
The results were made public Tuesday in Statistic Korea's "Average Timetable of Koreans," which was based on a survey of 21,000 people aged 10 or older.
It showed that 69.7 percent of Koreans feel busy, or feel pressured by tight schedules. The ratio of busy people grew by 1.6 percent from five years ago. Those in their 30s were most likely to feel the pressure, with 84.2 percent answering this way.
According to those interviewed, only half of males did some housework during weekdays, generally spending an hour and 7 minutes to complete tasks. In the case of females, however, over 90 percent engaged in household chores, spending an average of four hours.
Those who dedicated the longest time to housework were fulltime housewives with children under school age. They spent 8 hours and 23 minutes on average on weekdays on domestic responsibilities.
The statistics showed that Koreans typically sleep for 7 hours and 50 minutes. They go to bed at 11:37 p.m. and get up at 6:50 a.m. the next morning, on average.
Senior citizens and the farming community, meanwhile, go to bed and get up an hour earlier.
High school students slept for only 7 hours and 11 minutes, while studying for 9 hours and 10 minutes a day.
Koreans spent only an hour and 45 minutes eating, from breakfast, lunch and dinner to snacks, reflecting the tight daily schedule.
People here are spending less time reading books and newspapers. They registered 5 hours and 1 minute for leisure activities, but TV took most of their free time at an hour and 51 minutes daily. Koreans spent 46 minutes for social activities and 29 minutes for sports, but they read books for only eight minutes a day on average. The ratio of people who read books for 10 minutes or more a day during weekdays recorded 11.3 percent, down 1.4 percent from five years ago.
Those who read newspaper for more than 10 minutes daily stood at 13.7 percent, with each spending between 36 to 37 minutes. The ratio of newspaper readers fell from 16.5 percent in 2004. Men and elderly people were more likely to read newspapers.
Koreans typically spend 25 minutes using computers for searching for information, playing computer games or managing social links on weekdays. On Sundays, they spend 40 minutes on the computer.
For daily duties, such as work, housework, or studying, computers were used for 8 hours and 7 minutes a daily.
Koreans spent an hour and 35 minutes commuting each day, nine minutes longer than five years ago.