Overview
Key figures and core demographic trends for Korea, Rep..
Population
51.7M
Fertility Rate
0.75
Life Expectancy
83.6y
GDP / capita
$36.2K
Pop. Growth
-0.13%
Net Migration
65.7K
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Provisional fertility nowcast
Source: National Statistical Offices or Ministries of Health / Interior · compiled by @BirthGauge. Full nowcast table · provisional, may be revised.
YTD births (3 mo) +14.8% YoY
TFR 2024
0.75
TFR 2025
0.80
TFR 2026
0.92
Births YTD (3 mo)
75K
Rates per 1,000 people per year — not absolute birth or death counts. When the birth rate exceeds the death rate, natural increase is positive (before migration).
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Economy
National accounts and international trade.
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Exports & imports
International trade for Korea, Rep. — product exports and imports from OEC / BACI.
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Migration
Net migration, permits, and the foreign-born population of Korea, Rep., plus where migrants come from and where the diaspora lives.
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OECD definition: unemployed share of the labour force among native-born vs foreign-born residents aged 15–64. National offices (e.g. Statistics Sweden) may publish slightly different figures for other age bands or months — we show the internationally comparable OECD series. Latest: native-born 70.3%, foreign-born 68.0% (2024).
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Largest foreign-born communities in Korea, Rep. by country of birth (2024) · arrow shows change since 2010.
Source: UN DESA International Migrant Stock 2024
Top destinations for people born in Korea, Rep. who now live abroad (2024) · arrow shows change since 2010.
Source: UN DESA International Migrant Stock 2024
Demography
Age structure, projections, and population composition.
That is 65% smaller than in 2025. The animation freezes the latest fertility rate. It is a model, not an official forecast. UN World Population Prospects 2024 medium is 22 million in 2100 — higher than this run (low 14 million, high 32 million). UN lets fertility change over the century and includes some migration; this run does not.
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Mortality & longevity
Life expectancy, death rates and child mortality as far back as vital registration and historical reconstructions allow (from 1960), plus infant and maternal mortality.
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Pre-1960 life expectancy and long child-mortality series are from Our World in Data (Riley, Zijdeman et al., HMD, UN). Historic crude death rates cover countries in the Human Mortality Database only — Sweden from 1751, France from 1816, and so on. Crude rates are not age-standardized.
Health, education & infrastructure
Spending, capacity and attainment. Coverage is thinner than for demographic series — most figures come from periodic surveys rather than continuous registration.
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98%
2008
Only one year available — not enough points for a trend line.
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Society, housing & beliefs
Family, crime, housing and religion indicators.
Homicide rate
0.5
Divorce rate
2.1
Births outside marriage
2.5%
Home ownership
57.0%
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- Unaffiliated56.0%
- Christian28.0%
- Buddhist16.0%
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7per 1,000
2020
Only one year available — not enough points for a trend line.
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Why this country’s demographics matter
Age structure, fertility gaps, and migration change budgets and electorates. This is the constraint, not a manifesto.
South Korea is the ultra-low TFR case among large economies: family policy spend has not restored replacement.
- Period TFR near or below 1.0 in recent years is the exhibit — among the lowest recorded for a large high-income country.
- Housing, work culture, and marriage timing dominate the public debate; say what the data show, not which lever to pull.
- The 2040 workforce is mostly already born.
The longer argument — pensions, schools, coalitions, and what migration does and does not offset — is on why birthrates matter. The case for a pronatal culture as the response is on what's the solution?. To turn this country’s series into a memo you can forward, open the briefing builder — generate a draft, write it yourself, then expand any paragraph.