Asan Poll

ASAN POLL- The Asan Institute for Policy Studies

THE ASAN PUBLIC OPINION BRIEF

Public Opinion on Social Division
SOURCE OF SOCIAL DIVISION : CLASS
July 16-18
On a scale of 0 to 10, how do you perceive the intensity of the division between the rich and the poor?
(0: Not Strong; 5: Normal; 10: Very strong, %)


SOURCE OF SOCIAL DIVISION_ CLASS

Younger generations were more likely perceive class conflict in Korea to be “strong” than older generations. As opposed to 88.3% of respondents in their twenties and 88.4% of in their thirties, only 57.0% of respondents 60 years or older rated class conflict to be strong (6-10).

Average monthly household income Surprisingly, groups with higher income perceived class conflict as more intense. While 87.3% of the income group earning more than $5,000 per month and 83.0% of the group earning between $4,000 and $5,000 per month perceived class division to be strong, smaller percentages of those earning between $1,000 and $2,000 (72.0%) or less than $1,000 (53.4%) perceived class conflict to be “strong.”

METHODOLOGY

  • The sample size of each survey was 1,000 respondents over the age of 19.
  • The surveys were conducted by Research & Research, and the margin of error is ±3.1% at the 95% confidence level.
  • All surveys employed the Random Digit Dialing method for mobile and landline telephones.

3-day rolling average?
The sample size of each survey was 1,000 respondents over the age of 19. The surveys were conducted by Research & Research, and the margin of error is ±3.1% at the 95% confidence level. All surveys employed the Random Digit Dialing method for mobile and landline telephones.

This brief is a product of the Public Opinion Studies Center at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies.


Contact Karl Friedhoff at klf@asaninst.org.

About Experts

Kim Jiyoon
Kim Jiyoon

Research Division

Dr. KIM Jiyoon is a senior fellow in the Public Opinion Studies Program at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies. Previously, Dr. Kim was a postdoctoral research fellow at Université de Montréal. Her research interests include elections and voting behavior, American politics, and political methodology. Her recent publications include “Political judgment, perceptions of facts, and partisan effects” (Electoral Studies, 2010), “Public spending, public deficits, and government coalition” (Political Studies, 2010), and “The Party System in Korea and Identity Politics” (in Larry Diamond and Shin Giwook Eds., New Challenges for Maturing Democracies in Korea and Taiwan, Stanford University Press, 2014). She received her B.A. from Yonsei University, M.P.P. in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley, and Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Karl Friedhoff
Karl Friedhoff

Chicago Council on Global Affairs

Karl Friedhoff is a fellow in public opinion and Asia policy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He was previously a Korea Foundation-Mansfield Foundation US-Korea Nexus Scholar and a member of the Mansfield Foundation’s Trilateral Working Group. Friedhoff was previously based in Seoul where he was a program officer in the Public Opinion Studies Program at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies. His writing has appeared in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, among others, and he has been a frequent guest on both TV and radio to discuss US foreign policy in Asia, South Korea’s politics, and international relations in East Asia. Friedhoff earned his BA in political science at Wittenberg University and an MA in international commerce at Seoul National University.