It found that the level of entrepreneurship among individuals and corporations has generally improved compared with three years ago.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea Youth Entrepreneurship Foundation on the 4th announced the results of the "2025 Entrepreneurship Survey," conducted on the general public and corporations. The Entrepreneurship Survey is the only survey in Korea that comprehensively measures entrepreneurial orientation, capabilities, attitudes and perceptions among individuals and corporations. It began in 2015 and has been conducted every three years since 2019.
As a result of the survey, the composite entrepreneurship index for individuals rose 0.2 points, from 56.4 in 2022 to 56.6 in 2025. During the same period, the composite index for corporations climbed 3.7 points, from 47.7 to 51.4, showing a larger improvement in the corporate institutional sector than among individuals.
In the individual institutional sector, entrepreneurial capability increased 0.4 points and entrepreneurial orientation rose 0.1 points, while entrepreneurial attitude remained at the same level as the previous survey. By gender, the index was 54.5 for both men and women, showing no difference, and by age group, it generally stayed in the 54-point range from teenagers to those in their 60s.
According to the analysis of the "perception of corporations" items introduced in 2022, positive perceptions of corporations among individuals rose 0.5 points, and anti-corporate sentiment fell 0.2 points. By type of corporation, positive perceptions were highest for startups (64.3), followed by venture corporations (63.8), large corporations (62.9) and small and midsize corporations (62.2), indicating that corporations with higher innovativeness and growth potential are viewed more favorably.
In the corporate institutional sector, the entrepreneurship index rose across vision and strategy (0.2 points), entrepreneurial orientation (2.4 points), culture and structure (2.8 points), and operating systems (5.7 points), with particularly large improvements in performance (9.7 points) and the business environment (8.6 points). This suggests that internal systems, organization and operational foundations within corporations are being strengthened in ways that support entrepreneurship.
By corporate characteristics, entrepreneurship levels were highest in educational services under the industrial classification standard, and by growth stage, high-growth corporations recorded relatively higher indexes within the comparison group.
Cho Kyung-won, director general for startup policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS), said, "It is encouraging that entrepreneurship among individuals and corporations has improved despite sluggish economic conditions," adding, "We will continue to contribute to revitalizing entrepreneurship in Korea through accurate statistical information and use it as a basis for key policymaking."