📖 Inside Korea's Webtoon Machine

28.7%

Diagnosed with depression — vs. 7.7% national lifetime average

17.4% / 4.1%

Suicidal ideation / attempted suicide — vs. 10.7% / 1.7% national average

9.9 hrs / 11.8 hrs

Average daily work hours — rising to 11.8 the day before deadline

68.3 vs 52.0

Panels demanded per episode, vs. what artists themselves call reasonable

The Korea Labor Safety and Health Institute surveyed 320 working webtoon artists (earning at least ₩500,000/month) and conducted 15 in-depth interviews. 28.7% had been diagnosed with depression, versus Korea's national lifetime prevalence of 7.7%. 28.2% reported insomnia.

Suicidal ideation was reported by 17.4% of respondents (vs. 10.7% nationally) and attempted suicide by 4.1% (vs. 1.7% nationally). Artists who had experienced public harassment or hate comments had a 1.9x higher risk of depression diagnosis and 2.18x higher risk of sleep disorder symptoms.

Average daily working hours were 9.9, climbing to 11.8 the day before a deadline. The average episode required 68.3 panels — well above the 52.0 panels artists said they considered a reasonable workload. Long, seated work also correlated with elevated rates of musculoskeletal disorders, cystitis, and digestive and eye conditions.

The survey covered 320 self-selected respondents, not a random sample of Korea's full webtoon workforce (estimated in the thousands) — the direction of these findings is consistent across multiple separate studies (2021, 2023 reports cited similar patterns), but the exact population-wide prevalence should be read as indicative, not a census figure.