Seoul’s loneliness epidemic is eating the city from within.
The city glitters, but there’s a reason the locals call South Korea “Hell Joseon.” Locals contend with crippling debt and pressure-cooker academic and work lives. Loneliness and isolation stem from and compound those problems. It’s a scourge that manifests in different ways across the metropolis’s sprawling cityscape, and a pressing issue the government is keen to address.
According to a 2021 study from the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, about 3.1% of those aged 19 to 39, or around 340,000 people, are considered to be lonely and reclusive.
At the extreme end is “godoksa,” or lonely death, where someone dies by suicide or illness after living in social isolation.
Lonely deaths in South Korea increased from 3,378 in 2021 to 3,661 in 2023, per the South Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare’s data.
The South Korean government plans to spend over $322 million on measures that attempt to fix loneliness. However, experts told Business Insider this initiative fails to address the root causes of the problem — and might not have the effect the government is hoping to achieve.
A ‘Seoul Without Loneliness’
Titled “Seoul Without Loneliness,” the initiative takes a multi-pronged approach to address the problem.
City authorities said in an October statement that people experiencing loneliness can tap a 24/7 counseling hotline. They can also eat together in community spaces and collect perks and activity points for participating in sporting activities and attending local events.
“We will mobilize our resources to create a happy city where no one is isolated, implement the Seoul Without Loneliness initiative, and thoroughly manage the issue from prevention to healing, reintegration into society, and the prevention of re-isolation,” Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said in the statement.
When contacted by Business Insider, a representative for the Seoul Metropolitan Government said that the plan will involve all departments in the city’s government collaborating to “establish a systematic support framework tailored to specific fields and life stages.”
“‘Seoul Without Loneliness’ is a bold challenge for the city and not an easy path to take,” the representative said. “While numerous trials and errors are expected, and not all issues can be resolved at once, Seoul is confident that continuous efforts and various innovative attempts will eventually lead to achieving its goals.”
“Seoul will continue to do its utmost to create a city where all citizens can live happily,” the representative added.
Last year, the country’s Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said it would pay socially isolated youth around $500 a month to encourage them to mingle with society.
Prevention is better than cure when it comes to tackling loneliness
Psychologists and sociologists that Business Insider spoke to said that while October’s initiative is a step in the right direction, it’s not a silver bullet.
“It may be helpful for those who feel they’re isolated and who are willing to get out of their loneliness. But for those who do not want outside help, then these policies are probably irrelevant to them,” Joonmo Son, a sociology professor at the National University of Singapore, told BI.
“The other issue we need to think of is that the policy itself does not prevent loneliness. Rather, it’s to prevent the lonely deaths of those who are isolated,” Son added.
Eva Chen, a psychology professor at Taiwan’s National Tsing Hua University, told BI that South Korea should address the country’s competitive culture, which starts young.
Last year, nearly 80% of children participated in private education programs like “hagwons” or cram schools, according to data from South Korea’s National Statistics Office. Families also splashed out $19.4 billion on private education — which can span all manner of supplementary drilling on schoolwork, from after-school “hagwon” sessions to tutoring.
“It’s an incredibly competitive society, and you can see these issues start to appear when children start their formal schooling. You will notice that suicide rates among Korean students are fairly high when compared to neighboring countries,” Chen said.
In 2023, South Korea recorded a suicide rate of 27.3 out of 100,000 people, the highest rate among OECD countries like the US, UK, and Japan.
Navigating such a competitive environment, Chen said, can result in people becoming more withdrawn and isolated.
“It sort of breaks down that willingness to be helpful. In young children, the natural tendency is toward empathy and valuing moral goodness over more superficial factors like your salary and your education,” she continued.
Kee Hong Choi, a psychology professor at Korea University, said that his country’s education system needs to be “changed dramatically” to become less competitive.
“People become individualistic because they are emotionally hardened from social pressure and judgment,” Choi said.
“Many people get traumatized by these kinds of social comparisons in an education system and start to develop depressive, or social anxiety symptoms,” he added.
Stakes are high for solving the problem of loneliness
South Korea’s ongoing struggle with the loneliness epidemic poses both social and economic implications.
Sohyun Kim, a psychology professor at Korea University, told BI that “the problem of loneliness is one of the most urgent social and economic problems” the country faces.
“Many of these individuals are also financially struggling, which is not surprising as all of these issues can affect various areas of our lives, including our productivity, and also those who are financially more limited have been found to be at higher risk of isolation,” Kim said.
Korea University’s Choi said social isolation among youths could exacerbate the country’s existing socio-economic problems, such as its birth rate.
South Korea’s fertility rate was 0.72 in 2023, the lowest in the world. It’s even lower in Seoul, which recorded a fertility rate of 0.55 in the same year.
Based on its current trajectory, the country’s population of 51 million is expected to halve by 2100. That’s another problem Seoul’s government is trying to solve with its “birth encouragement” program to raise fertility rates. Nearly a fifth of South Korea’s population lives in Seoul.
“Lonely individuals are, of course, less likely to form families. That’s a huge problem for Korea right now, to produce the next generation of children, and more practically, the next generation of the workforce,” National Tsing Hua University’s Chen said.
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