Last year, Korea's total national land area was found to have increased by 12.5㎢ from the previous year to 100,472㎢. Driven by land development projects such as the Hwaseong-si Hwaong District agricultural development project, the land increased by about 4.3 times the size of Yeouido (2.9㎢).
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on the 30th announced the 2026 cadastral statistics. The cadastral statistics are national approved statistics that are published annually by aggregating the number of parcels and area by administrative district (si/do, si/gun/gu), land category (type of land), and ownership (individual, national/public land, etc.), based on information registered in the cadastral records (land and forest ledgers).
As of Dec. 31 last year, the registered land area of Korea was found to have increased by 12.5㎢ from the previous year to 100,472㎢ due to new registrations such as land development projects and reclamation of public waters. Ongoing land development projects, including the Hwaseong-si Hwaong District agricultural development project and the reclamation of public waters for the Mokpo New Port hinterland complex, expanded the national land area.
Among the 17 metropolitan and provincial governments nationwide, the largest areas were ▲ North Gyeongsang 18,428.2㎢ (18.3%) ▲ Gangwon 16,831.2㎢ (16.8%) ▲ South Jeolla 12,364.3㎢ (12.3%). The smallest were ▲ Sejong 465.0㎢ (0.5%) ▲ Gwangju 500.9㎢ (0.5%) ▲ Daejeon 539.8㎢ (0.5%).
Looking at national land area changes over the past 10 years, the area of forests and farmland (forest land, fields, paddies, orchards), which account for about 81.8% of the national territory, decreased by 1,538.6㎢ (-2%). In contrast, the area of living infrastructure facilities (sites for buildings, school sites) increased by 488.7㎢ (15%), industrial infrastructure facilities (factory sites, warehouse sites) by 262.9㎢ (25%), transportation infrastructure facilities (roads, railways, parking lots, gas stations) by 402.1㎢ (12%), and recreation and leisure facilities (parks, sports sites, amusement areas) by 240.9㎢ (42%), respectively.
Forests and farmland have decreased every year due to the expansion of residential and industrial sites and infrastructure from industrialization and urbanization, and over the past 10 years farmland (816.2㎢) decreased more than forests (722.5㎢).
Among the 17 si/do, South Jeolla 3,196.1㎢, North Gyeongsang 2,990㎢, and South Chungcheong 2,441.7㎢ hold the most farmland in that order. Individuals own 86% (16,196.4㎢) of all farmland.
Seong Ho-cheol, director general for national land information policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT), said, "Because the cadastral statistics are important data that allow us to verify changes in the total area and use status of the entire national territory registered in the cadastral records in figures, we will provide them to requesting institutions in a timely manner and strive to publish statistics yearbooks that are accurate and highly reliable so they can be widely used for a variety of national land policy-making and academic research."
The Cadastral Statistics Yearbook is produced in the form of statistical charts, summary, si/do, and appendix, distributed to about 280 institutions including government, public agencies, libraries, and schools, and provided as electronic files (PDF) on various statistics portals for anyone to use.