Distillers South Korea
A one-page guide to South Korea for the spirits trade: the country, its people, its economy and how it drinks.
At a glance
- Capital
- Seoul
- Official languages
- Korean
- Currency
- South Korean won (KRW)
- Time zone
- UTC+9 (KST, no daylight saving listed)
- Area
- 100,472 km²
People
- Population
- 51.7 million (2025)
- Population growth
- -0.1% a year
- Living in towns and cities
- 81.2%
- Aged under 15
- 10.2%
- Aged 65 and over
- 20.3%
- Life expectancy
- 83.6 years
Economy
- GDP
- US$1.88 trillion (2025)
- GDP per person
- US$36,408 (2025)
- Economic growth
- 1.1% (2025)
- Inflation
- 2.1% (2025)
Climate
Mostly humid continental with humid subtropical areas in the south, shaped by the East Asian monsoon. Summers are hot and humid (often above 30 C); Seoul winters run roughly -7 to 1 C. Rain is concentrated in the jangma season (late June-July) and June-September, with typhoons possible on the southern coast in late summer.
Alcohol
- Alcohol is
- Legal
- Legal drinking age
- 19 for purchase (counted by birth year, so people turning 19 in the calendar year qualify); no separate drinking age
- Alcohol per adult a year
- 8.3 litres of pure alcohol (2022)
- Traditional drinks
- Soju
Sources: World Bank (population, economy and demographics), WHO Global Health Observatory (alcohol per adult and drinking mix); Business France - spirits in South Korea (data July 2026); Seoulz - Korea alcohol regulation; Seoulz - Korea soju industry 2026; Asia News Network - whisky prices (Dec 2022); MoneyToday - soju exports (Sept 2026); Wikipedia - South Korea (basics, climate); IMF DataMapper WEO (GDP, population, growth, inflation; retrieved 26 Oct 2026); UN Comtrade (HS 2208). Figures are the latest each source publishes; the year is shown beside each one.