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Busan tops happiness index
Busan offers a lot for residents and tourists to be happy about.
Busan took first place in the nationwide work-life balance index survey and second place in the Citizens' Happiness Index among de-signated metropolitan cities. The work-life balance index indicates the best city to live in regarding resid-ents' quality of life.
According to the 2021 Regional Work-Life Balance Index, Busan scored 64.1 points out of 100, making it the best city to live in, in terms of residents' quality of life, top among 17 cities and provinces in the country. Seoul followed at 62, Sejong at 60.8 and Daejeon at 60.3. The city outperformed the overall national average of 54.7, including the nation's score of how committed it is to its citizens, which was 8.8 and Busan came in at 13.9. To this end, City Hall will continue to promote work-life balance through productive publicity and support organization and ordinance.
Busanites also showed the highest level of happiness. According to the 2022 Koreans Happiness Survey by the National Assembly Future Institute, Busan ranked first among seven metropolitan cities and second among 17 cities and provinces, scoring 7.19 out of 10 in terms of citizens' happiness. While the national average happiness index score declined from 6.83 in 2020 to 6.53 in 2022, Busan has steadily increased from 6.85 in 2020 to 7.19 in 2022.
Residents gave the highest scores in indices such as fun (6.91), happiness (6.88) and daily life satisfaction (6.58). The city also recorded the highest personal safety, workplace satisfaction and leisure time scores. According to the 2022 Busan Metropolitan Social Survey released last month, Busanites are satisfied with social safety, life and welfare services. Additionally, they reported less societal stress post-COVID-19, particularly economic stress, which decreased by 4.5%, indicating a recovering economy.
Mayor Park Heong-joon pledged that he would not spare any effort in his work to make the city a place where Busanites can live happily and enjoy their daily lives with a work-life balance. In summation, he hopes to make Busan a city where every citizen can be happy and where people want to live generation after generation.