The cost of a Gangnam-style education
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The cost of a Gangnam-style education

Source article in Korean is at this link.

A study has found that three out of ten households in Gangnam-gu earn an average of five million won ($4,730) per month or more, and spend an average of 1.14 million won ($1,080) per month on private education.

Also, about 8% of the area’s households have a child who has studied abroad, at a cost of 50 million won per child.

Those statistics come from the local government’s 2011 statistics, published today. The statistics are compiled from 174 indicators in ten categories, including population, families, residences, education, and finances.

It was found that 27.5% of Gangnam households earn an average of five million won per month or more. 19.3% earn three to four million won, 18% earn two to three million won, and 17.6% earn four to five million won. 10.7% earn one to two million won, and 6.9% earn less than one million won.

78% of the population think of themselves as “at least middle class” in terms of political, economic, and social positions.

The average expenditure on private education is 1.14 million won per month. Households earning less than two million spend 710,000 won, while those earning at least ten million won spend 1.6 million won, showing that spending on education tends to rise with income. [But ponder those percentages. –KB]

Households with children in high school spend an average of 1.07 million won per month on private education. College graduates spend 1.08 million won, slightly more than high school graduates (1.03 million).

7.6% of households said they had had their children study overseas, at an average per-child cost of 48.577 million won. College students spend an average of 21.4 months studying abroad, middle school students 19.3 months, high school students 19.1 months, pre-schoolers 12.9 months, and elementary school students 11.6 months.

There were 1,965 recorded cram schools (hagwons), 7.1% higher than the 1,834 in 2010. That makes 3.5 cram schools per 1,000 Gangnam residents, 2.7 times higher than the figure of 1.3 for all of Seoul.

In 2010 30% of households were single-person, higher than the 24% figures for Seoul and nationwide. Half of female single-person households are unmarried women.

78% of residents are of economic age (15 – 64), slightly higher than the 76% for all of Seoul. 6.7% of the population was elderly, nearly twice the 3.5% nationwide figure.

There are 17 students per teacher, significantly lower than the nationwide (20.6) and Seoul (23.7) figures.

In Gangnam hospitals there were 24,535 foreign patients, 28% higher than the previous year, and there were 1.032665 million foreign guests, a 40% increase.