South Koreans on average consumed alcoholic beverages 8.5 days per month in 2019, a poll showed, with a growing number of people drinking at home this year due to the virus pandemic. 　It marked a slight drop from 8.8 days posted in 2017 and 2018, according to the report released by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. 　Around 43 percent of South Koreans picked beer as their preferred alcoholic beverage, followed by soju, a distilled liquor made with grain, with 25 percent.

　Lottery sales in South Korea hit a 15-year high in the first half of the year amid the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, government data showed. 　Sales of lottery tickets were tallied at 2.6 trillion won ($2.2 billion) in the January-June period, up 11.1 percent from a year earlier, according to data from the Finance Ministry and the Korea Lottery Commission. 　The figure is the largest for the first half since the ministry started releasing data on lottery sales for the firs

　Nearly 1,000 travel agencies in South Korea have gone out of business in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak that started to hit the country in late January, data showed.  　The number of tour agencies came to 21,671 as of the end of June this year, down 938, or 2.7 percent, from the end of December, according to data from the Korea Tourism Association.  　Compared to the end of September last year, the figure is down 4.1 percent. (Yonhap)

　Almost all of the state coronavirus relief funds that were given out in card form have been spent, and about half of the money was spent mostly on dining out and grocery shopping, the Interior Ministry said. 　The government handed out the relief funds totaling 14.3 trillion won ($12.2 billion) to all households from May 4 to Aug. 24 to help people cope with the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. 　The money was available in the forms of credit or debit card points, prepaid cards

　Despite COVID-19 having bogged down the global entertainment industry, the conversation and buzz surrounding K-pop on the social media platform Twitter have increased substantially in the past year. 　The number of K-pop-related tweets on the global social media platform from July 2019 to June 2020 reached 6.1 billion, up 15 percent from the 5.3 billion tally from a year prior, according to data compiled by Twitter Korea together with music startup Space Oddity’s fandom analytics dash

　Climate change and the spread of infectious diseases are seen as the top threats by the majority of people in 14 economically advanced nations surveyed by the Pew Research Center. 　In similar surveys conducted by the Washington-based center in 2013, 2016, 2017 and 2018, the chief threats were seen as climate change and terrorism. 　For the latest survey, Pew questioned 14,276 adults living in Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spai

　Record-low numbers of South Koreans are expected to visit their hometowns or travel during the upcoming Chuseok holiday amid lingering coronavirus fears, a poll showed. 　In the survey of 1,000 adults nationwide conducted by Gallup Korea early last week, 81 percent said they had no plans to leave their homes for more than one night during the Chuseok holiday, the Korean version of Thanksgiving, which runs from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2 this year. 　According to Gallup Korea, only 16 percent of th

　Racial minorities accounted for 78 percent of COVID-19 deaths under the age of 21 in the United States between February and July, a government report said. 　Out of 121 deaths among under-21s, 45 percent were among Hispanics, 29 percent among blacks and 4 percent among American Indians or Alaskan Natives, according to the study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 　Together, these groups represent 41 percent of the US population under 21. 　Overall, mortality among children a

　More than 3.09 million Korean women live alone, with growing numbers engaged in economic activities, government statistics showed. 　According to Statistics Korea, one-woman households accounted for 50.3 percent of the total 6.14 million single-person households this year. 　The statistics agency expects the number to continue to rise to reach 3.23 million by 2025 and 3.65 million by 2035. 　Overall, the total number of women in South Korea stood at 25.83 million this year, making up 49.9

　Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos topped Forbes’ list of richest Americans for the third year in a row, while US President Donald Trump’s ranking dropped as the coronavirus pandemic slammed his office buildings, hotels and resorts, the magazine said. 　The aggregate wealth of the Forbes 400 list rose to a record $3.2 trillion, as the richest Americans continued to do well even though the pandemic has devastated the economy, which is short about 11 million jobs compared to where it was in

　South Korean food delivery applications saw their sales hit a fresh high in August as more people refrained from dining out and stayed home amid the stricter social distancing scheme, data showed. 　The combined transactions made through the country‘s four major food delivery applications came to 1.2 trillion won ($1 billion) in August, up 28 percent from a month earlier, according to the industry tracker WiseApp. 　Sales from the four applications reached a whopping 7.6 trillion won

　South Korean exports of ice cream swelled more than 11 percent in the first eight months of the year despite a slump in the country’s overall overseas shipments, official data showed.  　Overseas shipments of Korean ice cream products came to $47 million in the January-August period, up 11.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. 　The United States was the largest export destination for Korean ice cream, followed by China, Canada, Vi

　South Korea’s tourism income hit a 17-year low in the second quarter of this year due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, government data showed. 　For the April-June period, the country posted $1.19 billion in tourism income, down 78.6 percent from $5.57 billion over the same period last year, according to data from the Korea Tourism Organization. 　From three months earlier, it tumbled 65.5 percent from $3.46 billion. 　It is the lowest quarterly amount since 2003, when South Korea's

　Major South Korean companies saw their overseas sales tumble nearly 20 percent in second quarter of the year during the coronavirus pandemic, data showed. 　Combined overseas sales of the country’s top 100 firms by revenue totaled 146.3 trillion won ($123 billion) in the April-June period, down 19.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Federation of Korean Industries. 　The tumble marks a sharp turnaround from the first quarter, when their sales edged up 0.65 pe

　The number of self-employed people in South Korea has fallen at a far faster pace in 2020 than last year, data showed. 　South Korea had 5.548 million self-employed people as of the end of July, down 127,000 from the same month a year earlier, according to data from the Korea Small Business Institute and Statistics Korea. 　The decrease is far higher than the figure from a year earlier. (Yonhap)