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People
Background
South Korea is situated at the south part of the Korean peninsula between the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea. The Korean Peninsula is one of the most homogeneous regions in the world both ethnically and linguistically. The population of South Korea is almost entirely Korean, although there is a small number of Chinese who constitute the only significant minority group in the country.
Demography
The population of South Korea -- now around 49 million -- more than doubled from the 1950s to the 1990s. Large numbers of Koreans who emigrated to Japan before World War II returned to South Korea after 1945. In addition, about two million people migrated to South Korea from North Korea during and after the Korean War in the 1950s.
Of the almost-50 million people in South Korea, three-fourths of them live in cities that are populated by a larger percentage of young people. Although the overall population growth rate is low in the country, South Korea has one of the world's highest population densities. On the other hand, its vast rural areas are depopulated, with larger percentage of older people.
Language
Korean is the only language spoken in the country. Although dialects exist, the Korean spoken throughout the peninsula is mutually comprehensible. The Korean language is related to Japanese, and its written language is a combination of Chinese characters and the Korean scrip known as Hangul in South Korea and Choson muntcha in North Korea. Chinese characters are still in limited use in South Korea, although the trend is toward using less Chinese characters.
Religion
Korea's traditional religions are Buddhism and Shamanism. Buddhism has lost some influence over the years but is still followed by about 47 percent of the population. A religious belief known as Shamanism, derived from belief in gods, demons and ancestral spirits responsive to a priest, or Shaman, existed in Korea before the introduction of Confucianism and Buddhism, but its practice in South Korea today is limited to certain occasions such as funerals.
Confucianism had been a basis of national ethics in Korea for several hundred years from the late 14th to early 20th century, and it still has a dominant cultural influence in the peninsula. Christian missionaries arrived in Korea and began missionary activities there in the 19th century. Christians now are the largest religious group in South Korea with 49 percent of the population practicing Christianity.
Human Development
The population of South Korea has a healthy life expectancy at birth of 77.42 years of age -- 81.1 years for females and 74 years for males -- according to recent estimates. The infant mortality rate of South Korea is 5.94 deaths per 1,000 live births. In terms of literacy, 97 percent of the female population and over 99 percent of the male population, age 15 and over, can read and write.
In terms of health and welfare, 4.2 percent of GDP in this country is spent on education' 6.5 percent of GDP is spent on health expenditures. Generally, access to sanitation and water in this country is excellent.
One notable measure used to determine a country's quality of life is the Human Development Index (HDI), which has been compiled annually since 1990 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The HDI is a composite of several indicators, which measure a country's achievements in three main arenas of human development: longevity, knowledge and education, as well as economic standard of living. In a recent ranking of 175 countries, the HDI placed South Korea in the high human development category, at 30th place. In a subsequent ranking of 169 countries, South Korea was ranked as being in 12th place.
Note: Although the concept of human development is complicated and cannot be properly captured by values and indices, the HDI, which is calculated and updated annually, offers a wide-ranging assessment of human development in certain countries, not based solely upon traditional economic and financial indicators.
Written by Dr. Denise Youngblood Coleman, Editor in Chief, www.countrywatch.com . See Bibliography for list of research sources.
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