By Yoon Ja-young
Staff Reporter
What are the lives of the super rich like? A number of statistics recently gave a glimpse into the days of the richest 1 percent in the country.
According to reports, the top 1 percent of households make some 182.8 million won a year, or 15 million won a month, and spend around 7 million won monthly. Other statistics presented by Rep. Lee Hahn-koo of the conservative Grand National Party showed that they have 2.3 billion won in net assets on average. These top 1 percent owned 95.8 percent of golf and other sports facilities memberships, and 59.8 percent of stocks that belong to individual investors.
The average heads of these super rich households were in their 40s with degrees in engineering. Smart students shun engineering these days as more of them choose medicine and law, but the statistics showed that 44 percent of the super rich dads and moms majored in engineering. Over half of these top 1 percent had degrees from junior colleges or higher, much higher than the 32.5 percent national average.
The report made by the Maeil Business Newspaper was based on the "Trend of Household Balances,'' which is released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) each quarter.
The super rich didn't spare money on cultural activities, spending 380,000 won on these, around four times that of the average household. They spent 610,000 won on eating-out, 250,000 won on clothes, and 1.5 million won on education, either for their children or for themselves.
The top 1 percent of households lives in a house of around 275 square meters on average, about three times larger than the average 100 square meter residence of the middle class
It needs more than a decent job to be the super rich, the statistics show. Out of the 15 million won monthly income, only 60 percent was earned ― the rest came from rent, dividends or interest on savings.
Rep. Lee also pointed out the disproportion of assets between the rich and the poor.
According to statistics cited by the lawmaker, the top 20 percent of households had 826.8 million won in assets, which is 171.5 times the 4.8 million won in average assets of the bottom 20 percent.
The richest 20 percent made 6.3 million won a month, 7.64 times the 830,000 won income of the bottom 20 percent. ``The asset disproportion worsened during the Roh Moo-hyun administration,'' Lee said. He pointed out that the value of land increased by 1,365 trillion won, and the market prices of apartments by 456 trillion won during the first four years of the Roh administration.