ACOG - Korea  - IBM

Geography

Location: Eastern Asia, southern half of the Korean peninsula bordering the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea, south of North Korea

Area:
total area: 98,480 sq km
land area: 98,190 sq km
comparative area: slightly larger than Indiana

Land boundaries: total 238 km, North Korea 238 km

Coastline: 2,413 km


People

Population: 45,553,882 (July 1995 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 24% (female 5,280,998; male 5,640,789)
15-64 years: 71% (female 15,877,182; male 16,291,183)
65 years and over: 5% (female 1,554,512; male 909,218)

Population growth rate: 1.04% (1995 est.)

Birth rate: 15.63 births/1,000 population

Death rate: 6.18 deaths/1,000 population

Net migration rate: 0.9 migrant(s)/1,000 population

Infant mortality rate: 20.9 deaths/1,000 live births

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 70.89 years
male: 67.69 years
female: 74.29 years

Total fertility rate: 1.66 children born/woman

Ethnic divisions: homogeneous (except for about 20,000 Chinese)

Religions: Christianity 48.6%, Buddhism 47.4%, Confucianism 3%, pervasive folk religion (shamanism), Chondogyo (Religion of the Heavenly Way) 0.2%

Languages: Korean, English widely taught in high school

Literacy: age 15 and over can read and write (1990 est.)
total population: 96%
male: 99%
female: 94%


Government

Names:
conventional long form: Republic of Korea
conventional short form: South Korea

Type: republic

Capital: Seoul

Independence: 15 August 1948

Constitution: 25 February 1988


Economy

National product: GDP - purchasing power parity - $508.3 billion

National product real growth rate: 8.3%

National product per capita: $11,270

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 5.6%

Unemployment rate: 2%

Electricity:
capacity: 26,940,000 kW
production: 137 billion kWh
consumption per capita: 2,847 kWh



Olympic Factoid
Pin trading was one of the most popular Olympic sports, with more than 1.2 million pins changing hands during the Games in the Coca Cola Pin Trading Center at Centennial Olympic Park.