Daily commute in greater Seoul takes 83 minutes: report

Commuters walk near Gwanghwamun Square in Jongno-gu, central Seoul in the morning, Nov. 28. (Yonhap)

An average worker living in Seoul and its surrounding regions spends an average of 83.2 minutes a day going back and forth from home to work, a state report showed Thursday.

The Statistics Korea announced a report on commute time for workers across the country, specifically for who use the mobile services of SK Telecom, one of the country's top three mobile carriers. The agency compared data it had of workers' home addresses and jobs with data compiled by SK's mobile tracking system.

On average, South Korean workers took an average of 72.6 minutes a day to commute, taking 34.7 minutes to get to work and 37.9 minutes going back home. They travelled an average of 18.4 kilometers total per day.

People working in the greater Seoul region -- Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province -- spent the most amount of time and travelled the longest distance commuting, moving an average of 20.4 kilometers total daily, to then spend an average of 9.3 hours in the office. Workers living in Gangwon Province spent the least amount of time commuting: a total of 52.1 minutes.

About 81.4 percent of those living in Seoul had jobs in the nation's capital, while 16.9 percent of them commuted to Gyeonggi Province and 1.9 percent to Incheon. Of all the regions, residents of the city of Sejong were the least likely to work in their own city, with only 56.8 percent of them commuting within the city while 20.9 percent commuted to nearby Daejeon and 10.3 percent to South Chungcheong Province.

All workers living in Jeju Island commuted to workplaces in Jeju Island, according to the report.

The data also showed that men spent more time commuting to work -- 75.6 minutes -- compared to women at 67.9 minutes. Meanwhile, the average commute time for those in their 20s and 30s was the longest out of all age groups at 75.7 minutes. Commute times were generally shorter for older workers but those aged 60 or above still spent 69.1 minutes commuting.

The report suggested that significantly more men than women are in the workforce, with 61 percent of Korea's workers being men and 39 percent women. Men worked for an average of 9.6 hours a day, compared to 8.8 hours for women.

In cases of single-person households, their commute time was an average of 70.4 minutes -- travelling 17.3 kilometers daily -- compared to 73 minutes for households with multiple members. "This could imply that single-person households tend to prefer residing closer to their work," the agency said.

By Yoon Min-sik(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)