🇰🇷 South Korea Politics - Governance, Freedom & Democracy

Home
/ Countries
/ 🇰🇷 South Korea
/ 🏛 Politics

🇰🇷 South Korea KR / KOR #107

Nomad Score 67.0

Cities 19

Region G20, Sinosphere, Tech Startup Ecosystems, Remote Work Friendly Countries, Coworking Hotspots, Nomad Visa Countries, Asia, Asia, Eastern Asia, Next Eleven, Four Asian Tigers

Currency KRW

📊 GOVERNANCE AT A GLANCE

Government Unitary presidential republic

UN Member Yes

Independent Yes

CPI Score (2026) 63/100

Press Freedom (2025) 64.1/100 #61

Electoral Democracy (2025) 0.819

HDI 0.937

🛡 SAFETY & SECURITY

Homicide Rate (2023) 0.5/100k

Traffic Deaths (2019) 8.6/100k

Military Spending (2024) 2.6% of GDP

🏛 GOVERNMENT & LEADERS

Government Type Unitary presidential republic

Title	Name
President of South Korea	Lee Jae Myung
Prime Minister of South Korea	Kim Min-seok

💰 CORRUPTION PERCEPTIONS INDEX

CPI Score (2026) 63 / 100

Interpretation Low corruption

Source: Transparency International / Corruption Insights API. Higher scores = less corruption.

📰 PRESS FREEDOM INDEX

Overall Score (2025) 64.1 / 100

Global Rank #61 / 180

Rank Change +1 vs previous year

RSF Zone Asie-Pacifique

Political #79 48.8

Economic #41 55.1

Legal #54 69.2

Social #93 59.1

Safety #52 88.1

Source: Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Higher scores = better press freedom.

📊 PRESS FREEDOM DIMENSIONS

Five dimensions of press freedom tracked over time. Higher = better.

🗳 DEMOCRACY INDEX

Electoral (2025) 0.819

Liberal 0.739

Participatory 0.551

Deliberative 0.751

Egalitarian 0.712

Source: V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy), CC-BY-SA. Scale: 0 (least democratic) to 1 (most democratic).

📋 PRESS FREEDOM HISTORICAL DATA

Year	Score	Rank	Political	Economic	Legal	Social	Safety
2025	64.1	61	48.8	55.1	69.2	59.1	88.1
2024	64.9	62	51.1	54.9	69.5	61.8	87.0
2023	70.8	47	63.5	55.8	70.0	77.5	87.3
2022	72.1	43	71.2	55.3	72.8	79.8	81.5
2021	76.6	42	-	-	-	-	100.0
2020	76.3	42	-	-	-	-	100.0
2019	75.1	41	-	-	-	-	86.1
2018	76.5	43	-	-	-	-	100.0
2017	72.4	63	-	-	-	-	100.0
2016	71.4	70	-	-	-	-	100.0
2015	73.5	60	-	-	-	-	83.9
2014	74.3	57	-	-	-	-	-
2013	75.5	50	-	-	-	-	-
2012	12.7	44	-	-	-	-	-
2010	13.3	42	-	-	-	-	-
2009	15.7	69	-	-	-	-	-
2008	9.0	47	-	-	-	-	-
2007	12.1	39	-	-	-	-	-
2006	7.8	31	-	-	-	-	-
2005	7.5	34	-	-	-	-	-

Source: Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Press Freedom Index