According to statistics released on the 20th by South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Land Information Corporation (LX), only 16.7% of South Korea’s total land is urban areas where 92.1% of the country’s population lives.

More specifically, as of the end of last year, the land area in South Korea designated for land use is 105,563 square kilometers. Of this, the area of urban regions such as residential, commercial, and industrial zones totals 17,740 square kilometers, accounting for 16.7% of the total land area. Based on resident registration population, among the country’s total population of 51.12 million, 47.06 million live in urban areas, representing 92.1%.

In urban land, the area of green space is 12,555 square kilometers, accounting for 70.8%; residential areas cover 2,791 square kilometers (15.7%), industrial areas 1,292 square kilometers (7.3%), and commercial areas 349 square kilometers (2%). Compared with 2021, the residential area increased by 51 square kilometers (1.9%), the industrial area increased by 51 square kilometers (4.1%), and the commercial area increased by 7 square kilometers (2%); meanwhile, the green space area decreased by 37 square kilometers (0.3%).

　　According to the national land-use classification, forest and agricultural areas have the largest area, at 491.91 thousand sq km, accounting for 46.2%. Next are administrative areas at 273.29 thousand sq km (25.6%), urban areas at 177.40 thousand sq km (16.7%), natural environment protection areas at 118.74 thousand sq km (11.1%), and unassigned land-use areas at 429 sq km (0.4%).