This country comparison is a concise, tabular overview of numerous data from our respective country pages for South Korea and United States. There, we provide many explanations and details per country that go far beyond this comparison.
General information
| South Korea | United States | |
|---|---|---|
| Region: | East Asia | North America |
| Area: | 100,339 km² | 9,525,067 km² |
| Official language: | Korean | None. English has the status of a national language |
| Government form: | Presidential republic | Federal presidential republic |
| Capital: | Seoul | Washington, D.C. |
Population
Details for South Korea and the United States
| South Korea | United States | |
|---|---|---|
| Population: | 51,628,000 | 333,288,000 |
| Inhabitants/km²: | 514.5 | 35.0 |
| Life expectancy males: | Ø 81 years | Ø 74 years |
| Life expectancy females: | Ø 87 years | Ø 79 years |
| Average age: | Ø 43.2 years | Ø 38.5 years |
| Birth rate: | 5.10 ‰ | 11.00 ‰ |
| Death rate: | 6.20 ‰ | 10.40 ‰ |
| Migrationrate: | 0.84 ‰ | 1.68 ‰ |
Quality of life
Values from 0 (bad) to 100 (very good)
See also: Explanations and country ranking on quality of life
| South Korea | United States | |
|---|---|---|
| Political stability: | 83 | 67 |
| Civil rights: | 77 | 83 |
| Health: | 92 | 69 |
| Climate: | 57 | 66 |
| Cost of Living: | 50 | 41 |
| Popularity: | 42 | 87 |
Economy
Details for South Korea and the United States
| South Korea | United States | |
|---|---|---|
| Currency: | South Korean won (1 KRW = 100 Chon) | US dollar (1 USD =100 Cents) |
| Unemployment rate: | 2.8 % | 3.6 % |
| Inflation rate: | 5.09 % | 8.00 % |
| Cost of Living: (USA = 100%) | 75.58 % | 100.00 % |
| Commercial taxes and contributions: | 33.20 % | 36.60 % |
| Average income: | 36,190 US$ | 76,770 US$ |
| Central government debt (% of GDP): | 48.05 % | 110.15 % |
| General government debt (% of GDP): | 54.33 % | 121.38 % |
| Corruption index: | 37 (moderate) | 31 (moderate) |
| KOR: total | per 1000 inh. | USA: total | per 1000 inh. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross domestic product: | 1,673,916 M US$ | 32.42 M US$ | 25,439,700 M US$ | 76.33 M US$ |
| Gross national product: | 1,868,327 M US$ | 36.19 M US$ | 25,586,033 M US$ | 76.77 M US$ |
| Exported goods: | 820,643 M US$ | 15.90 M US$ | 3,018,457 M US$ | 9.06 M US$ |
| Imported goods: | 811,129 M US$ | 15.71 M US$ | 3,969,644 M US$ | 11.91 M US$ |
Infrastructure
Details for South Korea and the United States
| KOR: total | per 1000 inh. | USA: total | per 1000 inh. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roadways: | 110,714 km | 2.14 km | 6,832,000 km | 20.50 km |
| Railways: | 4,837 km | 0.09 km | 293,564 km | 0.88 km |
| Waterways: | 1,600 km | 0.03 km | 41,009 km | 0.12 km |
| Passenger airports: | 15 | 0.0003 | 436 | 0.0013 |
Energy balance
Details for South Korea and the United States
| KOR: total | per 1000 inh. | USA: total | per 1000 inh. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Production capacity: | 1.190 tn kWh | 23.04 m kWh | 10.015 tn kWh | 30.05 m kWh |
| Energy consumption: | 531.26 bn kWh | 10.29 m kWh | 3.898 tn kWh | 11.70 m kWh |
| Energy production: | 549.87 bn kWh | 10.65 m kWh | 4.049 tn kWh | 12.15 m kWh |
| CO2 emissions: | 569.68 m t | 11,034.33 t | 4.32 bn t | 12,963.38 t |
Telecommunication
Details for South Korea and the United States
| South Korea | United States | |
|---|---|---|
| International dialing: | +82 | +1 |
| Internet domain: | .kr | .us |
| KOR total | KOR per 1000 inh. | USA total | USA per 1000 inh. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Landlines: | 22,809,806 | 442 | 91,623,000 | 275 |
| Mobile cellulars: | 76,992,107 | 1491 | 372,682,000 | 1118 |
| Internet users: | 50,166,295 | 972 | 305,802,027 | 918 |
| Broadband Internet: | 23,537,333 | 456 | 127,123,000 | 381 |
Healthcare system
Details for South Korea and the United States
| South Korea | United States | |
|---|---|---|
| Hospital beds per 1000 inh.: | 12.43 | 2.87 |
| Physicians per 1000 inh.: | 2.37 | 2.59 |
| Diabetes: | 6.9 % | 10.8 % |
| Tuberculosis: | 0.44 ‰ | 0.03 ‰ |
| Smokers: | 20.8 % | 23.0 % |
Climate
We also provide a more detailed climate comparison of both countries.
The data for each country can be found here: South Korea and United States
| South Korea | United States | |
|---|---|---|
| Daytime temperatures: | 18.2 °C | 18.7 °C |
| Nighttime temperatures: | 9.9 °C | 7.1 °C |
| Water temperature: | 12.8 °C | 19.1 °C |
| Rel. humidity: | 69 % | 67 % |
| Rain days: | 6.8 | 7.2 |
| Sunshine hours per day: | 6.2 | 7.2 |
Maximum daily temperatures in comparison
United States
South Korea
Native languages
| South Korea | United States | |
|---|---|---|
| Korean: | 99.9 % | 0.3 % |
| English: | n/a | 82.1 % |
| Spanish: | n/a | 10.7 % |
| Chinese: | 0.1 % | 0.9 % |
| French: | n/a | 0.7 % |
| German: | n/a | 0.6 % |
| Italian: | n/a | 0.6 % |
| Tagalog: | n/a | 0.4 % |
| Polish: | n/a | 0.3 % |
| Japanese: | n/a | 0.2 % |
| Portuguese: | n/a | 0.2 % |
| Russian: | n/a | 0.2 % |
| Vietnamese: | n/a | 0.2 % |
| other: | 0.0 % | 2.6 % |
Religions
| South Korea | United States | |
|---|---|---|
| Christianity: | 31.6 % | 69.2 % |
| Nondenominational: | 43.3 % | 23.3 % |
| Buddhism: | 24.2 % | 0.8 % |
| Judaism: | n/a | 1.4 % |
| Islam: | n/a | 0.8 % |
| Hinduism: | n/a | 0.5 % |
| other: | 0.9 % | 4.0 % |
Data inventory and updates
A country comparison like this can be based on several hundred individual data items from dozens of different sources. All data are based on the most recent data available to us. Most of them refer to the previous year and are updated around March of the following year. If a country has not yet published data for the most recent or penultimate year, we present the most recent official data. Updates are made on an ongoing basis depending on the subject area or source, so there is no single "cutoff date" for this comparison. Sources for almost all data can be found on our respective country pages.
