It would be so great if children around the world could enjoy every moment they spend during the day, either by focusing on what they like to do or just living their life without much trouble.

Happiness is of course a subjective term that can be defined by different elements and in numerous ways, but children in the United Kingdom seem “happy” to the level that their Korean friends will be jealous.

An official report of the U.K.’s National Statistics Office said in early April that 9 out of 10 children in the country were “happy with most areas of their lives.”

The result was based on a survey of 10-14 year olds that has been conducted since 2009. In the survey, the kids were asked how they felt about life, friends, family, school, school work and appearance. The kids were asked to answer on a seven-point scale from “completely happy” to “not at all happy.”

Eighty-nine percent said they were happy with their life as a whole while only 4 percent described themselves as the opposite.

For the question “With whom they were most happy,” over 50 percent said they felt “completely happy” when they were with friends.

* focus on ~에 집중하다

* subjective 주관적인

* term 용어

* element 요소

* jealous 질투 나는

* survey 여론조사

* appearance 외모

* scale 척도

<한글해설>

행복한 영국 아이들

온 세상 어린이들이 자기가 좋아하는 일을 하거나 혹은 별 걱정 없이 생활하며 하루를 매일 즐겁게 보낼 수 있다면 얼마나 좋을까?

물론 행복은 여러 관점에서 많은 방식으로 다르게 해석되는 주관적인 개념이지만 영국의 아이들은 한국 친구들이 질투가 날 정도로 진정 행복해 보인다.

영국 통계청이 4월 9일 발표한 공식 보고서에 따르면 영국 아동 10명 중 9명이 자신들의 생활에 대해 "전반적으로 행복"하다고 답했다고 한다.

이 결과는 10세에서 14세 아동을 대상으로 2009년부터 실시한 조사에 기초하고 있다. 조사에서 아이들에게 생활, 친구, 가족, 학교, 학업과 외모에 대해 어떻게 생각하는지에 관한 질문이 주어졌다. 아이들은 "매우 행복"에서 "전혀 행복하지 않음"에 해당하는 7개의 척도에 맞춰 답변했다.