South Korea — Country Profile & National Debt
An overview of South Korea covering geography, demographics, economy, culture, political status, and practical information, sourced from World Bank and REST Countries open data.
These figures are estimates based on public statistics and may differ from actual values.
About South Korea
The capital of South Korea is Seoul. It has a population of approximately 51.2M. The country covers an area of 100,210 km². It is located in Eastern Asia.
Ranks among the highest globally for average internet speeds.
Geography
South Korea is a country in Eastern Asia, part of the Asia region. It covers an area of approximately 100,210 km². It shares land borders with North Korea, totalling 1 neighbour.
Demographics & Languages
South Korea has a population of approximately 51,159,889 people. Population density is around 510.5 people per km². Its officially recognised languages include Korean, totalling 1 language. People from this country are referred to as South Korean.
Economy Overview
As of 2024, South Korea reports a nominal GDP of about $1.88 trillion. Government debt stood at roughly 48.6% of GDP in 2023. The official currency is the South Korean won (KRW, symbol ₩). The current exchange rate is approximately 1 USD = 1,545.29 KRW.
Culture & Time
South Korea operates on a single time zone (UTC+09:00). The local week is considered to start on Monday. Its country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) is.kr,.한국.
Government & Status
The capital of South Korea is Seoul. It is internationally recognised as an independent sovereign state. The country is a member state of the United Nations.
Practical Information
Traffic drives on the right. The international dialling code is +82. Its FIFA country code is KOR, and its ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code is KR.
Data Sources & Methodology
GDP and debt-to-GDP figures on this page are pulled from the most recent available year of World Bank open statistics. The real-time debt estimate is computed by multiplying total debt (GDP × debt ratio) by World Bank's real interest rate (or a 4% fallback when unavailable) and dividing across each second of a year. Exchange rates refresh hourly via open.er-api.com, and country-level metadata such as languages, time zones, borders, and domains is fetched from REST Countries every 24 hours. All values are estimates derived from public datasets and may differ from official figures.