6 in 10 Koreans say their entrepreneurial awareness is low, survey finds

Six in 10 South Koreans say their awareness of entrepreneurship is low, and favorable views of startups and new ventures have declined from two years ago, a new survey shows — prompting calls for broader education to spread an entrepreneurial culture.

According to a survey commissioned by the Korea Enterprises Federation's Entrepreneurship Development Institute — referred to here as the federation — and conducted by polling firm Mono Research, 59.7 percent of 1,000 adults nationwide rated their own level of entrepreneurial awareness as low.

The most commonly cited reason was fear of failure, at 33.7 percent. Respondents then pointed to a cultural preference for high-paying salaried work (21.2 percent) and a lack of entrepreneurship education (21.0 percent).

The survey also found that 85.7 percent of respondents had never received any entrepreneurship education, while 61.5 percent had never received any economic education.

The federation said expanding entrepreneurship and economic education is urgently needed so that the public can better understand the role of businesses and entrepreneurs, and cultivate latent entrepreneurial spirit by taking risks and accumulating experiences of challenge and failure in everyday life.

Favorability ratings for different types of businesses — scored out of 100 — fell across the board. Favorability toward new startups dropped to 66.6 points in 2026 from 70.6 in 2024. Ratings for startup companies fell from 75.7 to 73.2 points, while venture firms slipped from 75.8 to 74.0 points.

Career interest scores followed the same downward trend, with new startups scoring 52.0 points, startup companies 56.2 and venture firms 58.9 — all lower than in 2024, and by wider margins than the favorability declines.

Bae Tae-jun, a professor at Hanyang University, said the widening gap between how favorably people view startups and their actual willingness to pursue such careers reflects a growing tendency to avoid uncertainty and prefer stable, predictable rewards.

Meanwhile, half of respondents (49.7 percent) said they had considered starting a business, and more than one in 10 (12.4 percent) had either already done so (3.4 percent) or were in the process of preparing to (9.0 percent).

Among those who had started or were preparing to start a business, the top reasons cited were realizing their own ideas (32.2 percent) and the desire for a flexible work environment (28.1 percent).

Among those who had not considered starting a business, the leading reason was the psychological burden of potential failure (32.7 percent) — echoing the same concern identified as the top barrier to entrepreneurial awareness. Lack of funding (30.6 percent) and insufficient startup-related skills or knowledge (13.1 percent) were also frequently cited.

Jung Chul, the federation's head of research and director of the Entrepreneurship Development Institute, said there is a need to expand entrepreneurship education that instills the value of taking on challenges — so that people can try again after failure — while also strengthening a hands-on startup ecosystem.