• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.89-109
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• 2006

The 'Joongsancheung(JSC)', a unique term for the middle class in Korea, is defined as a stratum sharing common lifestyles and a certain level of life chances. It involves non-economic factors such as life chance, educational attainment, occupational groups as well as economic factor. Such objective measures as the occupational status of the main breadwinner, family income, and the educational level of respondent, and subjective measures of class identification are used for the operational definition of the JSC. Data from a national survey of 1,515 respondents is analyzed to investigate the change of the JSC in size and the major determinants of class identification. The results show that while there is no strong evidence of any significant change of the JSC by the objective measures during the recent decade, there seems to be a slight decrease in the subjective class identification. In addition, binary logistical regression analysis reveals that self-identification of JSC is heavily influenced by house ownership, along with subjective evaluation of one's own income and property ownership. This study demonstrates that the apparent class polarization in Korean society reflects not so much objective conditions but subjective perception of respondent of his or her circumstance. It is suggested that problems of housing and relative derivation people have as regards income and property should be resolved to alleviate such class polarization in Korean society.