Methodology
From official statistics to an accessible, comparable view of South Korea.
How the data reaches this site
Fetch monthly population statistics from KOSIS.
Verify table metadata, region codes, periods and values.
Normalize country, province, city and county series into stable identifiers with reviewed code and parent histories.
Calculate change against the same month of the previous year.
Publish validated JSON and rebuild every page as static HTML.
Population Growth
YoY growth (%) = (Current population − Population 12 months earlier) / Population 12 months earlier × 100
Share of national population
Regional share (%) = Regional population / National population × 100
Geographic coverage
KOR2OOL publishes population statistics for South Korea, metropolitan cities and provinces, and city/county-level areas, including Jeju City and Seogwipo. Districts (gu), local branches and duplicate aggregates are excluded. Metropolitan areas with only districts have no city/county list; their population totals remain available.
City/county rankings contain only published cities and counties, separately from provinces. Parent ranks compare published cities and counties belonging to that province in the same month. Parent and national shares use the same data month. District populations are excluded from these rankings, so city/county shares need not add to 100% in metropolitan areas.
When official evidence confirms the same region and boundary, observations before and after a source-code or parent change are joined into one series. They are not added together. The current parent determines the page URL, while each monthly observation retains its source code and parent. Year-over-year comparisons can cross these verified code changes.
Data quality & comparability
Statistical symbols and missing values remain null. A missing comparison or a zero denominator produces no percentage. Charts preserve gaps instead of interpolating them.
The latest common month across the country and published regions is used for comparisons. There are 17 provincial regions through June 2026 and 16 from July 2026. The trend shows up to 60 monthly observations from a 61-month source window. Population growth always compares exact calendar months, never adjacent observations.
Updates are checked weekly. Publication depends on the source's release schedule. A failed fetch or validation preserves the previous successful dataset.
Regions follow the source's administrative boundaries for each month. Boundary changes can affect regional growth; a change in population does not necessarily represent migration or natural change alone.
Before July 2026, this comparable series is the sum of Gwangju and Jeollanam-do populations from the same KOSIS table and unit. These combined values were calculated by KOR2OOL, not published by KOSIS as Jeonnam-Gwangju observations. From July 2026, the series uses official Jeonnam-Gwangju values.
Derived YoY comparison: the previous-year value combines Gwangju and Jeollanam-do populations for the same month.
Annual Local Government Budget
Budget fiscal year: 2026
The initial annual expenditure budget of each local government: general, other special and public-enterprise special accounts, excluding funds. Amounts use the gross budget of that government itself.
Budget (KRW) = General account + Other special accounts + Public-enterprise special accounts
The displayed fiscal year belongs to the annual initial budget and is separate from the population data month. Supplementary budgets are not included. The official KRW amount is preserved without rounding; compact figures are rounded for display.
A provincial government's budget does not include the budgets of its cities and counties. Account classification determines the scope: a special account remains included even if its name contains the word fund. Missing or unverified amounts are never treated as zero.
Budget coverage follows the local government in the stated fiscal year. A municipality's present parent can differ from its parent when the initial budget was adopted. Historical Gwangju and Jeollanam-do pages retain their own 2026 initial budgets. Their budgets are not combined to estimate the new Jeonnam-Gwangju government's budget, whose scope is under review.
Jeju City and Seogwipo are administrative cities, not independent local governments. They have no budget amount under this definition; Jeju Province's budget is not copied to them.
View Local Finance 365 source ↗USD reference conversion
KRW is the official budget currency. English pages also show an approximate USD amount using the ECB's EUR reference rates for USD and KRW on the same date.
KRW per USD = (KRW per EUR) / (USD per EUR)
Approximate USD = Official KRW budget / KRW per USD
FX reference date: · ECB
The reference date is the date published by the ECB, not the page build date or the budget year. A previous valid rate may be retained if an update fails, with its original date. If no valid rate is available, the official KRW amount remains visible and the USD estimate is omitted.
This population series is based on South Korea's resident registration statistics. Foreign residents are not included in this dataset.
Methodology