Concerns about inequality of opportunity have become increasingly prominent. As low growth becomes a long-term reality and the wealth gap widens, fears are growing that social mobility is declining. Social mobility is an essential part of what keeps society dynamic. The more widely upward mobility is perceived as unattainable, the greater the risk that individuals’ confidence in the future, as well as social trust, will erode. When individuals are unable to move up the socioeconomic ladder in a manner broadly consistent with their abilities and efforts, their socioeconomic positions will become more static and their motivation to innovate is likely to diminish. It is therefore urgent that we make an objective assessment of the current state of social mobility in Korea and come to a detailed understanding of the structural factors that hinder social mobility. Thus, this month’s issue of Health and Welfare Forum brings together five articles under the theme of “Social Mobility: A Diagnosis and Policy Implications.” In the first article, the authors discuss perceived social mobility and analyze disparities between desired and perceived opportunity and fairness. The three subsequent articles each take on social mobility and its constraints in the areas of income, assets, and employment, respectively, and present policy recommendations. The last article explores how parental social networks contribute to the intergenerational transmission of social capital. We hope that these articles will stimulate policy discussions on ways to mitigate the structural factors that constrain social mobility and promote equality of opportunity.

This article presents an analysis of key findings from a survey on perceived social mobility conducted by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs in 2025 involving 3,000 individuals aged 19 and older. While a relatively high percentage of respondents believed that individuals could improve their socioeconomic status through their own efforts, many also believed that parents’ socioeconomic status significantly influences that of their children. These findings suggest a gap between aspirations for social mobility and perceptions of the opportunities actually available. When asked how their current socioeconomic status compared with their status at around age 15, 48.8 percent of respondents reported remaining in the middle class, as they had been during childhood, indicating that opportunities for upward mobility are widely perceived to be diminishing. Perceptions of social mobility play an important role in individuals’ mobility beliefs, which means that the more persistent the perception that upward mobility is faltering, the more likely it is that social classes will become increasingly rigid. Policy efforts should therefore focus on expanding the overall opportunity structure and reducing structural inequalities that constrain social mobility.

This study uses the Ministry of Data and Statistics’ income mobility statistics to further disaggregate age groups according to life-cycle stages and to conduct a poverty analysis based on equivalised household income. Mobility was highest among youth and young adults aged 15-34, and a clear pattern emerged in which mobility declined with age. Among this group, women showed a higher rate of downward mobility than men, suggesting that this gender gap may be associated with disparities observed in later life stages. The overall analysis based on equivalised household income for 2017-2022 showed that both the poverty exit rate and the poverty entry rate declined. In addition, the rate of transition from the near-poor group into poverty was higher than that from poverty into the near-poor group. Among older adults aged 65 and older, the poverty exit rate declined while the poverty entry rate increased over the period. Older women appeared particularly vulnerable compared with older men. These findings suggest the need for policy design informed by a dynamic perspective that tracks income changes and mobility across income groups through longitudinal analysis.

This article explores social mobility in Korea with particular reference to assets―resources that are readily transferable across generations and therefore help maintain the socioeconomic status of upper-class families over time, independently of labor-market outcomes such as education, occupation, and income. Using data from the Korea Welfare Panel, the analysis found that, with respect to intragenerational asset mobility, asset disparities became increasingly pronounced both between social classes and within age groups, particularly over a 10-year interval compared with a 5-year interval, indicating cumulative effects over time. The intergenerational analysis suggested that parental income class influenced the initial distribution of children’s assets and revealed a mechanism through which income-class advantages are transformed in part into asset-class advantages and transmitted across generations. The findings imply that asset mobility should be assessed not in terms of short-term fluctuations but from a long-term structural perspective. The study also offers suggestions as to how future research could go beyond the limitations of the present study in exploring asset mobility.

This study examines job mobility across employment statuses using data from the Korea Welfare Panel. The proportion of workers transitioning from non-regular positions in employers with fewer than 300 employees to regular positions in employers with 300 or more employees has declined in recent years. Transitions from non-regular to regular employment within employers with fewer than 300 employees also declined for a time before stabilizing recently. In contrast, the rate of transition from non-regular to regular employment at employers with 300 or more employees has increased in recent years. The percentage of workers moving from regular positions in smaller employers to regular positions in employers with 300 or more employees has also increased, although only modestly. A panel logit analysis, conducted for this study to identify the determinants of the transition from non-regular to regular employment―a common path of upward job mobility toward employment stability―found that the likelihood of such a transition was higher among women, workers with longer tenure at their current employer, employees working for employers with 300 or more employees, and respondents who described their childhood economic circumstances as “neither poor nor rich.” These findings suggest that to promote upward mobility from the perspective of employment stability, policymakers should develop and strengthen measures that encourage longer job tenure. Individuals’ past economic circumstances may influence their current employment status, which in turn may positively affect income mobility and social mobility. Further discussion of social security reforms is needed to promote social mobility and ensure the continued functioning of pathways for socioeconomic advancement.

Individuals’ social connectedness―that is, their social network―affects their social mobility in important ways. Yet empirical investigations into the intergenerational transmission of social networks remain scarce both in Korea and in other countries. Korea ranks lowest among OECD countries in social connectedness and exhibits the largest disparities in social connections across age groups and levels of educational attainment. However, these characteristics have received little scholarly attention. Drawing on data from the 2023 Social Survey, this study examines the extent to which social networks are transmitted from parents to their children. The findings indicate that children of parents with larger social networks are more likely to participate in associations and attend cultural and arts events. These relationships remain statistically significant even after controlling for income and educational attainment. The intergenerational reproduction of social networks, which are unequally distributed across socioeconomic groups, may constitute a major barrier to social mobility. Further academic investigation and policy attention are needed.