Participants in the eighth Future Investment Initiative (FII) Conference wander around King Abdulaziz International Conference Center in Saudi Arabia's capital city of Riyadh, Tuesday (local time). Courtesy of FII Institute

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Koreans have the lowest level of satisfaction with their own lives, among the citizens from 24 different countries representing 62 percent of the global population, according to a recent survey done by the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute.

In July, the organizer of the world's second-largest CEO and government summit in Saudi Arabia's capital of Riyadh interviewed 50,700 adults from 12 developed and 12 developing countries, which were chosen to represent both the geographic and socioeconomic diversity of the world.

Asked how satisfied they were with their own lives, only 39 percent of Korean respondents answered that they were satisfied, while 41 percent of Turkish respondents and 43 percent of Japanese respondents gave the same answer.

Of all countries surveyed, the citizens of Saudi Arabia were most satisfied with their own lives, followed by those in Egypt and India.

“When we look at the satisfaction at a country level, we see a great deal of variation,” the FII Institute said. “Satisfaction with citizens' own lives is highest in Saudi Arabia at 84 percent and lowest in South Korea at 39 percent.”

Regarding the level of satisfaction with the situations in their countries, Korea was in the lowest-ranking group with France and Argentina, as only 14 percent of respondents in the three countries answered that they are satisfied with the situations in their countries.

In contrast, the citizens of China, Saudi Arabia and India showed high levels of satisfaction with the situations in their countries.

Korea was also among the five countries having the highest proportions of respondents, who selected cost of living as their main concern.