1% of population owns nearly 60% of land

Huge disparity seen in S.K. land distribution

Only 1 percent of the population of South Korea, about 500,000 people, possesses about 57 percent of privately-owned land.

According to the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs on October 2, at of the end of 2005, about 57 percent, or 56,457 sq. km. of South Korea’s entire 99,646 sq. km. of land, consisted of individual property, while 30 percent, or 30,225 sq. km., was public property. Of the remaining 13 percent, 5 percent was made up of commercial properties and 8 percent was either foreign-owned or unclassified.

Using another tally system, the National Resident Registration System, private land was about 48,749 sq. km. The total price of that land was estimated at 1.263 quadrillion won (US$1.3 trillion). South Korea’s 13.3 million landowners accounted for about 27 percent of the entire population of 48.8 million. They owned an average 3,654 sq. km. priced at 95 million won.

The ministry said that the wealthiest 999 persons, or 0.0075 percent of the population, controlled 3.1 percent of the entire land. The total private land owned by the 500,000 richest Koreans, or 1 percent of society, accounted for 57 percent, or 27,821 sq. km. This figure has not changed much since June last year, when 57.6 percent of the total land was owned by 1 percent of the population.

About 10.7 million households, roughly 60 percent of Korea’s 17.8 million households, owned private land. They had about 4,555 sq. km. on average priced at 118 million won. The upper 999 households owned an average 1.57 million sq. km. whose price was estimated at 22.5 billion won.

In Seoul, city residents possessed up to 85 percent of land, while in Gangwon Province only 52 percent of the land was owned by residents of that province.

The land owned by persons in their 50s was highest in terms of overall size and price, but those in their 30s possessed the most expensive land as measured in price per unit.

The land controlled by those 19 years old and younger was 133 sq. km., 15.8 times the size of Yeouido, or 0.3 percent of the nation’s total land area and 0.2 percent of the nation’s total land price, according to the ministry.