South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

is made up of 22 first-tier administrative divisions: 6 metropolitan cities (''gwangyeoksi'' ), 1 special city (''teukbyeolsi'' ), 1 special self-governing city (''teukbyeol-jachisi'' ), and 14 provinces ('' do'' ), including three special self-governing provinces (''teukbyeol jachido'' ) and five claimed by the ROK government. These are further subdivided into a variety of smaller entities, including

cities A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

(''si'' ),

counties A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

(''

gun A gun is a device that Propulsion, propels a projectile using pressure or explosive force. The projectiles are typically solid, but can also be pressurized liquid (e.g. in water guns or water cannon, cannons), or gas (e.g. light-gas gun). So ...

'' ),

districts A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...

('' gu'' ),

towns A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

('' eup'' ), townships ('' myeon'' ),

neighborhoods A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neighbourh ...

('' dong'' ) and villages ('' ri'' ).

Local government

''Official

Revised Romanization of Korean Revised Romanization of Korean () is the official Romanization of Korean, Korean language romanization system in South Korea. It was developed by the National Institute of Korean Language, National Academy of the Korean Language from 1995 and w ...

spellings are used''

Provincial-level divisions

The top tier of administrative divisions are the provincial-level divisions, of which there are several types: provinces (including special self-governing provinces), metropolitan cities, special cities, and special self-governing cities. The

governors A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

of the provincial-level divisions are elected every four years.

Municipal-level divisions

''Si'' (city)

A ''si'' (, pronounced ) is one of the divisions of a province, along with ''gun''. A city must have a neighborhood(''dong'') and can have towns(''eup''), townships(''myeon'') if the city is combined with urban and rural areas. Once an eup of a county (''gun'') attains a population of 50,000, the county can become a city. A city with a population of over 500,000 (such as

Suwon Suwon (; ) is the largest city and capital of Gyeonggi Province, South Korea's most populous province. The city lies approximately south of the national capital, Seoul. With a population of 1.2 million, Suwon has more inhabitants than Ulsan, tho ...

Cheongju Cheongju (; ) is the capital and largest list of cities in South Korea, city of North Chungcheong Province in South Korea. The 'Cheong' in the name of Chungcheong Province is the Cheong of Cheongju. History Cheongju has been an important prov ...

Cheonan Cheonan (; ) is the largest and most densely populated city of South Chungcheong Province, South Korea, and the third largest city in the Hoseo region after Daejeon and Cheongju. Cheonan borders Gyeonggi Province ( Pyeongtaek and Anseong) i ...

and

Jeonju Jeonju (, , ) is the capital and List of cities in South Korea, largest city of North Jeolla Province, South Korea. It is both urban and rural due to the closeness of Wanju County which almost entirely surrounds Jeonju (Wanju County has many resi ...

) is considered as a specific city, which can set non-autonomous districts(''gu''). An administrative city does not have a city council and the mayor of the city is appointed by the provincial governor.

''Gun'' (county)

A ''gun'' () is one of the divisions of a province (along with ''si''), and of the metropolitan cities of

Busan Busan (), officially Busan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's second list of cities in South Korea by population, most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.3 million as of 2024. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economi ...

Daegu Daegu (; ), formerly spelled Taegu and officially Daegu Metropolitan City (), is a city in southeastern South Korea. It is the third-largest urban agglomeration in South Korea after Seoul and Busan; the fourth-largest List of provincial-level ci ...

Incheon Incheon is a city located in northwestern South Korea, bordering Seoul and Gyeonggi Province to the east. Inhabited since the Neolithic, Incheon was home to just 4,700 people when it became an international port in 1883. As of February 2020, ...

and

Ulsan Ulsan (; ), officially the Ulsan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's seventh-largest metropolitan city and the eighth-largest city overall, with a population of over 1.1 million inhabitants. It is located in the south-east of the country, neighbo ...

(along with ''gu''). A ''gun'' has a population of less than 150,000 (more than that would make it a city or ''si''), is less densely populated than a ''gu'', and is more rural in character than either of the other 2 divisions. ''Gun'' are comparable to British

non-metropolitan districts Non-metropolitan districts, or colloquially "shire districts", are a type of local government district in England. As created, they are sub-divisions of non-metropolitan counties (colloquially ''shire counties'') in a two-tier arrangement. Non ...

. Counties are divided into towns (''eup'') and townships (''myeon''). Specially, the size of a "gun" is less than a US "county".

''Gu'' (district)

A ''gu'' () is equivalent to ''

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

'' in the West. The metropolitan cities of Busan, Daegu, Incheon and Ulsan contain ''gun'' as well. ''Gu'' are similar to

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

s in some Western countries, and a ''gu'' office handles many of the functions that would be handled by the city in other jurisdictions. ''Gu'' are divided into neighborhoods (''dong'').

Submunicipal level divisions

''Eup'' (town)

An ''eup'' () is similar to the unit of town. Along with ''myeon'', an ''eup'' is one of the divisions of a county (''gun''), and of some cities (''si'') with a population of less than 500,000. The main town or towns in a county—or the secondary town or towns within a city's territory—are designated as ''eup''. Towns are subdivided into villages (''ri''). In order to form an ''eup'', the minimum population required is 20,000.

''Myeon'' (township)

A ''myeon'' () is one of the divisions – along with ''eup'' – of a county (''gun'') and some cities (''si'') of fewer than 500,000 population. ''Myeons'' have smaller populations than ''eups'' and represent the rural areas of a county or city. ''Myeons'' are subdivided into villages (''ri''). The minimum population limit is 6,000.

''Dong'' (neighborhood)

A ''dong'' () is the primary division of districts (''gu''), and of those cities (''si'') which are not divided into districts. The ''dong'' is the smallest level of urban government to have its own office and staff. In some cases, a single legal ''dong'' is divided into several administrative ''dong''. Administrative ''dong'' are usually distinguished from one another by number (as in the case of Myeongjang 1-dong and Myeongjang 2-dong). In such cases, each administrative ''dong'' has its own office and staff. The primary division of a ''dong'' is the ''tong'' (), but divisions at this level and below are seldom used in daily life. Some populous ''dong'' are subdivided into ''ga'' (), which are not a separate level of government, but only exist for use in addresses. Many major thoroughfares in Seoul, Suwon, and other cities are also subdivided into ''ga''.

''Ri'' (village)

A ''ri'' () is the only division of towns (''eup'') and townships (''myeon''). The ''ri'' is the smallest level of rural government to contain any significant number of people.

History

Although the details of local administration have changed over time, the basic outline of the current three-tiered system was implemented under the reign of Gojong in 1895. A similar system also remains in use in

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

References

External links

* * * * {{Authority control Korea, South Lists of subdivisions of South Korea