Republic of Korea: By the Numbers!
This post will be a little different from others, because it is a personal challenge made by my friend Meghan, who also writes a blog from Sweden!
She and I really only stayed connected through our mothers after her family moved from south of Birmingham to the St. Augustine area. She is now living in Sweden and despite our 8-hour time difference, we have been able to Skype and share notes on living abroad!
We decided to blog about our respective "home towns" and thus provide a little more info to our family, friends, readers and even ourselves. I've certainly learned a lot!!
And maybe I should do this for the U.S. when I return ;)
Here goes!!
Motto: "홍익인간"
"Benefit Broadly the Human World"
(If only we all strove for that!)
Yeah it looks pretty tiny from this view. You would never know it given the population size.
The population for 2013 is estimated at 50,219,669 (26th in the World - 244 countries listed in Wikipedia). For an American perspective, Korea is slightly larger in size than Indiana (38,691 sq mi).
(
(Compare that to a population of 317,592,000 for the United States and only 6,570,902 for the state of Indiana.)
Oh and interesting fact - the life expectancy here is 79.3, which is better than the U.S.'s 78.4!!
It is mountainous in the east; in the west and south are many harbors on the mainland and offshore islands.
The total land area is about 38,961 sq. mi.
There you see the Yellow Sea on the left and the Sea of Japan (or East Sea) on the right.
China is directly to the west and Japan is directly to the east of South Korea. Russia isn't far north.
Countries like the Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam are actually much further south.
When I moved to South Korea, I could not have told you that ;)
The population density is estimated at 1,297.8 per square mile, which is the 16th in the world!
South Korea's population density is amazing! 487 people per square kilometer, which is more than 10 times the global average.
This country has really gone vertical...yeah the mountains help with that ;)
The official language is of course Korean, but the written language is Hangul...referring to the characters used to represent specific sounds.
The currency is the South Korean Won denoted as: (₩)
Here's a pic!
(Note: An easy way to quickly convert the currency is to remove the last three zeros and that gives you a "rounded-up" estimation. Example: Here you see 10,000 won which is roughly 10 American dollars.)
Ok, let's talk time zones:
South Korea is on Korean Standard Time, which basically means it is UTC +9 hours (or Coordinated Universal Time). Yeah, I downloaded an app on my phone to convert the time for me ;)
It is 8 hours ahead of my friend in Sweden. It is 15 hours ahead of Central Time (Birmingham, AL) and 14 hours ahead of Eastern Time (Atlanta, GA)
The major administrative divisions in South Korea are provinces, metropolitan cities (self-governing cities that are not part of any province), one special city (Seoul) and one special autonomous city (Sejong - population 122,153).
I live in the Gyeonggi province!
The largest city in South Korea is Seoul with population 10,143,645.
The metropolitan area has approximately 24.5 million inhabitants (about half of South Korea's entire population) making it the world's second largest metropolitan area and easily the most densely populated city in the OECD (or Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).
Hey Americans! New York City is the biggest city we have and it's population is barely over 8 million!
Metropolitan cities:
Busan - 3,527,635
Daegu - 2,501,588
Incheon - 2,879,782
Gwangju - 1,472,910
Daejeon - 1,532,811
Ulsan - 1,156,480
Provinces:
Gyeonggi - 12,234,630
Gangwon - 1,542,263
North Chungcheong - 1,572,732
South Chungcheong - 2,047,631
North Jeolla - 1,872,965
South Jeolla - 1,907,172
North Gyeongsang - 2,699,440
South Gyeongsang - 3,333,820
Special self-governing province: Jeju - 593,806 (an island off the southern coast)
The President (2013) is Park Geun-hye who is the first female president!
South Korea's market economy ranks 15th in the world by nominal GDP and is heavily dependent on international trade. In 2010, South Korea was the 6th largest exporter and 10th largest importer in the world.
It also has a technologically advanced transport network consisting of high-speed railways, highways, bus routes, ferry services, and air routes that criss-cross the country.
This is just the network for Seoul!
In 2012, 11.1 million foreign tourists visited South Korea, making it the 20th most visited country in the World!!! Family and friends, what are you waiting for?!!!
Other cool number things ~
Age - In Korea, babies are 1 year old at birth. Also, after the new year passes, everyone in Korea automatically ages one year. Example: A baby born on December 31st is 1 year old. Then, after January 1st, that baby would automatically turn 2.
I am currently 26 years old. Since I have not had my birthday this year, I am 28 by the Korean system. If you have already had your birthday this year, only add 1 to your current age; otherwise, add 2 for your Korean age.
Stole this info from somewhere -
While the Yoido Full Gospel Church might not have the largest building in the world, it defintiely has the biggest congregation. As of February 2013, this Seoul-based church had close to one million members. On any given Sunday, 200,000 of the faithful will attend one of the seven services, and that's not counting the additional 200,000-300,000 watching on TV.
Which leads me to discussing faith!
Some family and friends were worried that we wouldn't be able to find a good church to attend.
Fellowship and spiritual conviction are so important for personal spiritual growth.
Thankfully, I had already heard that a lot of Koreans were Christians!
Now, of course that doesn't always mean anything.
The census states who professes to be Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, etc., but only God will determine who He has known.
I am so thankful to know Him!
He is everything in my life. I cannot imagine living through trials and stress without Him.
According to the most recent census (2005), approximately 23% are Buddhist, 18% are Protestant, 11% are Roman Catholic, and 47% profess no religious belief. Many other groups constitute less than 5% of the the population.
The government does not permit religious instruction in public schools. Private schools are free to conduct religious activities.
The government observes the following religious holidays as national holidays: Buddha's Birthday and Christmas.
Well, I hope you have enjoyed this posting (if you have bothered to read through it all ;)!
The information I have found will definitely show up more later! There is so much knowledge to be gained about the world around us if we are only willing to look!
The information I have found will definitely show up more later! There is so much knowledge to be gained about the world around us if we are only willing to look!
Thanks for your support and encouragement! Until next time...God Bless!
Wow! Great write up and information! Thank you!
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