More than half or 54.8 percent of Koreans think of themselves as lower middle or working class.

The percentage is the highest in a Gallup poll since the 1990s. In a poll released Tuesday, 40.4 percent of respondents said they were lower middle class in terms of their standard of living. They were followed by middle class (39.3 percent), working class (14.4 percent), upper middle class (4.2 percent), and upper class (0.4 percent).

Compared to the 1994 survey, the percentage of those who felt lower middle class rose sharply from 38.6 percent to 54.8 percent, while the percentages of the middle class fell from 52.7 percent to 39.3 percent and of the upper-middle class from 8.7 percent to 4.6 percent. Asked what are their current living conditions are, 81 percent said they were barely subsisting and 5.5 percent said they lived on debt.

Only 13.5 percent said they lived in comfort. Compared to a year ago, 92.8 percent said their living has not improved, with 33 percent saying conditions have deteriorated and 59.8 percent saying they stayed the same. Only 6 percent said their living conditions improved."

Twenty-five percent of respondents chose clothing expenses as the item they would cut first in consideration of the worsening economic situation. Next were cultural expenses (23.5 percent), spending on food (17.9 percent), and communication costs (11.6 percent). This survey was conducted among 1,515 adults nationwide between Nov. 7 and 25.