Koreans are the most materialistic people in the developed world, an international poll suggests.
The U.S.' Pew Research Center surveyed 18,850 adults in 17 advanced countries by asking them "What makes life meaningful?" and Korea was the only country where the winner was material well-being.
Answers were divided in 19 categories ranging from material well-being to health and family.
In Korea, material well-being topped the list with 19 percent, followed by health (17 percent), family (16 percent), general satisfaction (12 percent), society (five percent) and freedom (five percent). Overall respondents valued family most with 38 percent, followed by work (25 percent) and material well-being (19 percent).
Most Koreans also cited only a single source of value in life with a whopping 62 percent, while globally only 34 percent did so.
But surprisingly, work ranked quite low on the list in Korea. It ranked within the top three in most of the 17 countries, but came in seventh place here. It topped the list along with family in Italy, and came second in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, New Zealand, Singapore and Sweden.
In Asia, friends and community were not considered important in making life meaningful, ranking seventh in Japan and Taiwan and eighth in Korea, but they ranked second in the U.S. and U.K.
