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South Korea's Ministry of Data and Statistics and the KOSIS database

The Ministry of Data and Statistics, which took over from Statistics Korea, is South Korea's national statistics office. It runs the census, the consumer price index, the Economically Active Population Survey, vital statistics and household income surveys, and publishes them through KOSIS, the Korean Statistical Information Service, which also holds statistics from other ministries. Fact-checkers use it for claims about prices, jobs, births, ageing and inequality.

Release calendar

What it publishes

• Consumer price index, monthly, with core and living-cost measures.
• Economically Active Population Survey: employment and unemployment, monthly.
• Population and housing census (register-based, with sample surveys) and population projections.
• Births, deaths, marriages and the total fertility rate.
• Survey of Household Finances and Living Conditions: income distribution, poverty and household debt.
• Life tables, cause-of-death statistics and regional statistics.

Key datasets

• KOSIS (English)
  Official statistics database with tables from the ministry and other agencies.
  Updated: Updated with each release
• KOSIS (Korean)
  Full Korean interface with more tables and notes than the English site.
  Updated: Updated with each release
• Ministry of Data and Statistics
  Press releases and release calendar.
  Updated: Daily

APIs and downloads

• KOSIS Open API
  Free API and downloads (Excel, CSV) for KOSIS tables; an API key requires registration.
• Bank of Korea ECOS
  Republishes key series from the ministry, such as CPI, employment and population projections, with a free API.

When it publishes

The CPI is published early in the following month and employment around the middle of the following month. Births are published monthly about two months after the reference month, with provisional annual figures in February. The ministry publishes an advance release calendar on its website.

How to use it to check a claim

1. Check whether a population figure is a census count, a projection or a resident registration count.
2. For fertility, say whether the figure is provisional or final and which year it covers.
3. For unemployment, quote the seasonally adjusted rate for monthly changes and look at the employment rate as well.
4. For poverty, note the income basis (market or disposable) and the age group.

Common mistakes

• The ministry was renamed from Statistics Korea, so older documents and URLs use the old name and kostat.go.kr addresses.
• Some sites block or reset connections from outside Korea; ECOS often remains reachable when KOSIS does not.
• English KOSIS tables may lag the Korean versions.

Is Statistics Korea the same as the Ministry of Data and Statistics?

Yes. Statistics Korea (KOSTAT) was reorganised as the Ministry of Data and Statistics; it remains the national statistics office and runs KOSIS.

Where can I download Korean statistics in English?

KOSIS has an English interface with downloads in Excel and CSV. Many core series are also in the Bank of Korea's ECOS database, which has English labels.

Questions answered using this source

• What is the population of South Korea?
• What is the inflation rate in South Korea?
• What is the unemployment rate in South Korea?
• What is the birth rate in South Korea?
• What is the poverty rate in South Korea?
• What share of South Korea's population is aged 65 and over?

Links checked 14 October 2026. This page describes what the source publishes and gives no verdict on any claim.