Born Then
1962–1996

Life during the Korean economic miracle

Be born in a place it hit, a few years before it began, and see what it did to five ordinary lives.

What it meant for ordinary people

South Korea went from one of the poorest countries in the world to an industrial economy in three decades of export-led growth under military and then democratic governments. Long hours, rapid urbanisation and labour repression were part of it.

How hard it hits each person in the game (risk of death, of being conscripted, of leaving) comes from our model, estimated from the sources.

Around the same time