Office workers spend more on drinks than books: survey

South Korean office workers spend twice as much on alcohol than on books, a poll showed Wednesday.

According to the survey released by a life education company, Huenet, a poll of 805 office workers showed they spend an average of 30,000 won ($26) per month on books and 62,000 won on alcohol.

Some 43.9 percent read one book per month, while 7.6 percent do not read any. Those reading two to four books per month made up 37.3 percent of the total.

Both men and women read a similar number of books per month -- 2.3 for men and 2.4 for women, but their expenditure on alcohol consumption differed greatly.

Men spend 68,000 won on alcohol per month, 2.3 times more than women, showed the data.

The proportion of people reading one book per year is 74.4 percent for Korea, which is 2.1 percent lower than the average of countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The average reading volume of adults in Korea is 9.1 books per year.



By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)