The overall number of hospital beds and medical equipment in South Korea exceeded other major economies, while the number of doctors was lowest, data has showed.　South Korea had an average of 12 beds per every 1,000 people in 2016, compared with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average of 4.7, according to data provided by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the National Health Insurance Service.　On the other hand, Korea had just 2.3 doctors per every 1,000 people in

　The number of single-person households continued to rise in South Korea last year.　According to data compiled by Statistics Korea, households consisting of a single member totaled 5.62 million in 2017, compared with 5.39 million the previous year. This accounted for 28.6 percent of all households in the country, up 0.7 percentage point from a year earlier.　The percentage of those living alone has been on a sharp rise for decades, hitting 20 percent in 2005 for the first time, compared to 4.8 pe

　The proportion of children using national and public kindergartens and child care centers is expected to remain far short of 40 percent, the government's target, official data showed. 　President Moon Jae-in earlier set a goal to expand government support for parents with young children, vowing to more than triple the proportion of infants and toddlers looked after by publicly run centers within his term in office.　As part of the effort, the government increased the number of centers by 373 in 2

　At least 73 journalists and media staff were killed around the world in the first 10 months of the year, according to the International Federation of Journalists.　The deadliest countries were Afghanistan with 15 killed and Colombia with eight. In addition, the deaths of journalists have recently gone beyond war zones and areas of conflict.　The number of journalists who have been killed, detained, held hostage or have disappeared has risen steadily.　

　According to the data compiled by Statistics Korea, the number of people aged 65 years or older reached 7.38 million in 2018, accounting for 14.3 percent of the country's total population.　The employment rate for those aged between 55 and 59 was 72.6 percent in 2017, compared to 70.6 percent in 2015 and 66.5 percent in 2010.　The comparable figure for those aged between 60 and 64 stood at 60.6 percent in 2017, rising from 59.6 percent in 2015 and 53.7 percent in 2010, the latest findings showed.

　The number of online advertisements for illegal loans rose sharply in 2018, government data showed.　According to data submitted by the Korea Communications Standards Commission to the National Assembly, 4,569 complaints were lodged about unauthorized ads posted on blogs or social media between January and September, compared with 1,755 reported in 2014.　Separate government data showed that 11,122 phone numbers were blocked by authorities between January and July this year, as they were being us

　Samsung Electronics was among the top 10 employers preferred by college students majoring in engineering and information technology, according to a survey.  　The South Korean tech giant ranked ninth, up one notch from last year, in the 2018 survey on the world’s most attractive employers conducted by human resources researcher Universum. 　Samsung was included among the top 10 for the third consecutive year.　Amazon was in 10th place, while Facebook and Huawei Technologies ranked 23rd and 40th, r

　A recent string of natural disasters, the latest a deadly earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia, have exacted a severe toll both in economic damage and human lives throughout Asia. The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, or UNISDR, says up to 1.6 million people could be affected by the magnitude 7.5 earthquake and the tsunami it created in a central region of the island of Sulawesi. 

　US scientist Frances Arnold became the fifth women to win a Nobel Prize in chemistry on Oct. 3, a day after Canada’s Donna Strickland became the third woman -- and the first in 55 years -- to clinch the Nobel Prize in physics.　Twelve women have won the Nobel Prize in medicine. There have been 19 female winners -- Marie Curie received two separate prizes -- out of more than 600 laureates across the three scientific categories. (AFP)

　The United Nations says the number of undernourished people in the world is growing and returning to levels seen a decade ago, reversing recent trends in large part due to climate change that is wreaking havoc on crop production in many parts of the developing world.　Major UN agencies said in an annual report Tuesday that the number of people facing chronic food deprivation increased to 820.8 million in 2017 from 804.2 million in 2016. South America and Africa showed the worst trends.　The head

　According to the research conducted by Embrain, 82.8 percent of South Koreans believe society is overly reliant on smart devices.　The survey was conducted on 1,000 respondents, aged from 19 to 59, in June.　More than half of the respondents, or 54.7 percent, claimed they themselves were reliant on their smart devices.　Around 72 percent of respondents said they use smartphones in their free time, which marked a slight increase from 61.5 percent posted in 2016.

　Cancer remained the leading cause of death in South Korea in 2017, with heart-related illnesses second, government data showed.　A total of 285,534 South Koreans died in 2017, up 1.7 percent from a year earlier, according to data from Statistics Korea.　Of all deaths reported last year, 78,863 people died of cancer, or 27.6 percent of the total, making it the leading cause of death in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.　The death rate -- the number of deaths per 100,000 people -- from cancer rose to 1

　The number of North Koreans defecting to South Korea has fallen under Kim Jong-un's regime, data showed.　According to Rep. Park Byeong-seug of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, citing figures he received from the Ministry of Unification, the figure has been on a steady decline since 2012. Kim took power in late 2011 following the death of his father, Kim Jong-il.　Park said, there were 2,706 North Koreans who defected to South Korea in 2011, but only 1,502 in 2012.　The number went up slightl

　South Korea is the 18th-best country in the world to live in, a survey by a US nonprofit organization showed.　According to the Social Progress Imperative, Korea earned an overall score of 87.13 out of 100 in its social progress index survey for 2018, ranking 18th out of 146 nations surveyed across the globe. Last year, the Northeast Asian nation ranked 26th.　The index aggregates 51 social and environmental indicators that track three aspects of social progress: basic human needs, foundations of

　France retained its No. 1 ranking as the most-visited country, with 86.9 million visitors, followed by Spain (81.8 million) and the US (75.9 million), according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization.　More than 1.3 billion people traveled to a foreign country in 2017, marking a 7 percent increase in international tourist arrivals from the year prior.　International tourists’ spending also reached $1.6 trillion in 2017, according to the UNWTO. 　China continued to lead outbound travel, w