List of cities in South Korea

The largest cities of South Korea have an autonomous status equivalent to that of provinces. Seoul, the largest city and capital, is classified as a ''teukbyeolsi'' ( Special City), while the next six-largest cities are classified as ''gwangyeoksi'' (Metropolitan Cities). Smaller cities are classified as ''si'' ("cities") and are under provincial jurisdiction, at the same level as counties.

City status

Article 10 of the Local Autonomy Act defines the standards under which a populated area may become a city: an area which is predominantly urbanised and has a population of at least 50,000; a which has an urbanised area with a population of at least 50,000; or a which has a total population of at least 150,000 and multiple urbanised areas each with a population of at least 20,000. An English translation is available from the Korea Legislative Research Institute, but is out of date: Article 7 of the 2018 version of the law is similar in content to Article 10 of the 2021 version of the law, aside from cross-references to other articles.

Under Article 3 of the Local Autonomy Act, a city with a population of less than 500,000 may create administrative subdivisions in the form of in its urbanised area and or in its rural area, while a city with a population of more than 500,000 may create administrative subdivisions in the form of non-autonomous .

Classifications for large municipal cities

The national government can designate cities of at least 500,000 inhabitants as special status cities. This status expands the scope of administrative authority delegated from the provincial government to the city government.Article 198, Local Autonomy Act (2021). Article 175 of the 2018 version of the law has similar provisions but is less detailed.

Big city

A big city is a city (other than a special city or a metropolitan city) that has a population greater than 500,000, and has been designated by an order of the national government under Article 198 of the Local Autonomy Act. Big municipal cities are given the power to subdivide themselves into non-autonomous districts ().

Due its legal status as an administrative city, Jeju City cannot be designated as a "big city" under the Local Autonomy Law, despite having an estimated population exceeding 500,000 as of 2022. The designation of "administrative city" was created by the law which granted special self-governing status to Jeju Province; that law specifically states that the Local Autonomy Act would not apply to administrative cities. As such, Jeju City does not enjoy special autonomy and only has the same legal powers as the much smaller Seogwipo. The administrative authority of Jeju City is trying to expand the scope of administrative authority delegated from the provincial government to the city government.

Special-status city

A special-status city is a subclass of big municipal city that has a population greater than 1,500,000.

List

; Notes
* The name "Seoul" does not originate from hanja. The official Chinese translation is written as /, which is a transcription based on the pronunciation of "Seoul" in Mandarin variant of Chinese language, and thus is not hanja of Korean language. In old Chinese documents, / was used. As an affix or abbreviation, the character ''gyeong'' (), which means "capital", is used.
* Seoul was designated a "Special Independent City" (''Teukbyeol-jayusi;'' ) separate from Gyeonggi Province on August 16, 1946; it became a "Special City" on August 15, 1949.

Cities by population

This is a list cities of South Korea by population including provincial-level divisions: special city (특별시/特別市) and metropolitan cities (광역시/廣域市), and municipal-level division: cities (시/市). Other municipal-level divisions: counties (군/郡 which have populations under 50K) and districts (구/區) are not included. All population data are based on the South Korean population and housing census 2000–2020.Population Census
Korean Statistical Information Service
2000–2020, Statistics Korea

Renamed cities

Dissolved cities

Claimed cities

Gallery

File:Daegu from Migliore.jpg, 4 - Daegu
File:Korea-Daejeon-Uam Historic Park-01.jpg, 5 - Daejeon
File:광주 광산구 수완동 호수공원 및 풍영정천 - panoramio.jpg, 6 - Gwangju
File:Hwaseong Third North Secret Gate and Dongbuk Gangnu - 2009-03-01.JPG, 7 - Suwon
File:Taehwa River.jpg, 8 - Ulsan
File:Gyeongsangnam-do Provincial Council in Changwon (2).jpg, 9 - Changwon
File:Bundang Jeongja.jpg, 12 - Seongnam

See also

* Administrative divisions of South Korea
* List of largest cities
* List of South Korean regions by GDP

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