Interesting Country Facts (South Korea)

South Korea, an East Asian nation on the southern half of the Korean Peninsula, shares one of the world’s most heavily militarised borders with North Korea. It’s equally known for its green, hilly countryside dotted with cherry trees and centuries-old Buddhist temples, plus its coastal fishing villages, tropical islands and high-tech cities such as Seoul, the capital.

Fast Facts about South Korea

1. South Korea’s population as of July 2009 was about 48,508,972. Its capital, Seoul, is one of its largest cities with a population of over ten million.

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2. The official language of South Korea is Korean but English is taught widely in the country’s schools. In addition, Japanese is common in South Korea.

3.  In Korea, a baby is one year old at birth, instead of zero as in most other cultures. And things get even trickier, since everyone has the same birthday . . . sort of. After the New Year passes, everyone in Korea automatically ages one year, even if they haven’t had their actual birthday yet. It gets even more complex for people who were born just a few days before the New Year. If a baby is born on December 31, it’d be one year old. However, after January 1, that same baby will automatically turn two.

4. Korea has the highest rate of plastic surgery per capita in the world, with 1 in 5 Koreans going under the knife. Eyelid surgery is one of the most common procedures.

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5. Korea has some of the largest shopping malls in the world, and some of the latest opening times too: many shops stay open til 4am.

6. The flag has a white background with a yin – yang symbol in the centre and four trigrams in the four corners of the flag

7. A strong bond among the South Koreans prevails as they speak and write the same language. The Hangul language consists of 14 consonants and 10 vowels. These alphabets can be combined to form various syllables. It is considered one of the standard scientific writing systems. This particular fact is one of the most popular fact among all interesting facts about South Korea.

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8. Buddhism and Christianity have powerful presences in South Korea.

9. All Korean roofs are curved at the ends giving an appearance of a smile.

10. South Korea is a crowded country, with 1,294 citizens for every square mile (499 per every square kilometer) of land.