EDUCATION · POPULATION · LOCAL ECONOMY

Universities in transition

How have Korea’s universities grown, and where are they shrinking? Follow the change from available places to spending around campus.

Within-quota recruitment, 2026

441,787people

Change in recruitment since 2015

-14.2%Universities + junior colleges

Universities and junior colleges combined. Recruitment is distinct from statutory admission quotas and from actual entrants.

Explore the changes Download statistics CSV

Sources checked: 2026-10-18

01 · Universities

A long expansion. A changing direction.

Higher education expanded after 1970. More recently, institution counts reflect mergers and changes in institutional type as well as closures.

Only observed years are shown. Some institutions under other ministries entered the survey in 2011; five branch institutions entered university counts in 2018.

View data table
Institutions by type · number of institutions
YearUniversitiesJunior colleges
2026188126
2025189130
2024189131
2023190133
2022190134
2021190134
2020191136
2015189138
2010179145
2000161158
1990107117
198085128
19707165

02 · Admissions

Fewer places can still mean a higher fill rate.

Compare recruitment with actual entrants. A rising fill rate can reflect fewer places, more entrants, or both.

2026441,787 / 436,187

Within-quota figures. Combined fill rate = total entrants ÷ total recruitment × 100. Mergers may shift counts between institution types.

Admission quota

The admission capacity set by institutional rules. It may differ from recruitment.

Recruitment

The number of within-quota places recruited in that year.

Entrants

New students who actually entered through within-quota admissions.

Fill rate

The share of recruited places filled by actual entrants.

View data table
Universities + junior colleges
YearRecruitmentEntrantsFill rate
2026441,787436,18798.7%
2025443,073429,14696.9%
2024442,980423,42795.6%
2023447,556423,84194.7%
2022459,702429,09193.3%
2021469,360429,15191.4%
2020474,990461,13297.1%
2015514,879508,89798.8%
2010547,527537,10298.1%

03 · Regions

One year. Different regional realities.

Compare recruitment and freshman fill rates across regions. Read the percentages alongside quotas and entrant counts.

University disclosures · excludes junior colleges · 16 comparable areas

Aggregated department-level disclosures. Gwangju and Jeonnam are combined in every year to match the “Jeonnam-Gwangju” label in the 2026 AcademyInfo CSV. This is a separate source; some annual totals differ from published national education statistics.

View data table · 2026
University disclosures · excludes junior colleges · 16 comparable areas
RegionAdmission quotaRecruitmentEntrantsFill rate
Seoul75,12775,12574,97899.8%
Busan28,67728,55028,536100.0%
Daegu10,15610,02810,075100.5%
Incheon6,4586,3896,386100.0%
Daejeon18,33117,93717,89299.7%
Ulsan2,9802,7432,753100.4%
Sejong3,1663,1713,13598.9%
Gyeonggi38,38238,65237,92998.1%
Chungbuk15,56115,35815,379100.1%
Chungnam25,06724,95424,89499.8%
Gyeongbuk24,32223,91223,46398.1%
Gyeongnam12,22412,09512,08099.9%
Jeju2,6202,5382,16485.3%
Gangwon14,76814,37014,33799.8%
Jeonbuk14,30114,18914,07499.2%
Gwangju & Jeonnam21,69021,47621,07198.1%

04 · Future cohorts

The next student generations are already here.

Move each birth cohort forward to its usual university-entry year. The generation born in 2017 starts from a smaller base than the one born in 2007.

Bars show observed live births. Entry year assumes the usual path of birth year + 19. These are not forecasts of future university entrants.

View data table
Live births and usual entry year · people
Usual entry yearBirth yearLive births
20161997675,394
20262007496,822
20362017357,771
20392020272,337
20422023230,028
20432024238,317
20442025254,341

05 · Closures

The closure list is concentrated outside the capital region.

Closures do not follow a simple south-to-north sequence. Hanzhong University and Kangwon Tourism College in Gangwon are also on the list.

17 / 17

All 17 universities and junior colleges in the foundation’s list were outside the capital region

The Korea Advancing Schools Foundation list contains 22 institutions as of 10 December 2025, including graduate-only and miscellaneous institutions. It is not an all-time census of every institutional type. Counts are not regional closure-risk rates.

View all 22 listed institutions
Official Korean institution names · excludes mergers
YearInstitutionTypeRegion
2024강원관광대학교Junior collegesGangwon
2023한국국제대학교UniversitiesGyeongnam
2023계약신학대학원대학교Graduate-only institutionsGyeonggi
2022한려대학교UniversitiesJeonnam
2021서해대학Junior collegesJeonbuk
2020동부산대학교Junior collegesBusan
2018한중대학교UniversitiesGangwon
2018서남대학교UniversitiesJeonbuk
2018대구외국어대학교UniversitiesGyeongbuk
2018대구미래대학교Junior collegesGyeongbuk
2015인제대학원대학교Graduate-only institutionsSeoul
2014벽성대학Junior collegesJeonbuk
2014국제문화대학원대학교Graduate-only institutionsChungnam
2013한민학교Miscellaneous institutionsChungnam
2013경북외국어대학교UniversitiesDaegu
2013건동대학교UniversitiesGyeongbuk
2012성화대학Junior collegesJeonnam
2012선교청대학교UniversitiesChungnam
2012명신대학교UniversitiesJeonnam
2008아시아대학교UniversitiesGyeongbuk
2008개혁신학교Miscellaneous institutionsChungbuk
2000광주예술대학교UniversitiesJeonnam

06 · Seoul districts

Does spending around campus move with student numbers?

Compare four food and beverage categories in six Seoul university districts. Each area starts at 100 in 2021, so the focus is on change rather than size.

2021 = 100

Estimates cover Korean restaurants, Western restaurants, pubs/bars, and coffee/beverage shops. Sales are nominal, without inflation adjustment, and include non-student spending. Pandemic-year 2021 is the baseline; this does not measure recovery to pre-pandemic levels.

Changes in sales and transactions in 2025
University districtCompared with 2021Compared with 2024
Nominal sales changeTransaction changeNominal sales changeTransaction change
Sinchon & Ewha+31.7%+11.6%-9.4%-11.2%
Hongdae+82.7%+50.0%+0.2%+0.6%
Konkuk+26.8%+4.5%-9.4%-10.6%
Anam+59.3%+78.1%-2.4%-5.1%
Hoegi & Kyung Hee+12.2%-5.1%-9.7%-7.6%
Chung-Ang & Heukseok+41.0%-7.9%-3.0%-3.8%
View data table · 2021 = 100
Korean restaurants, Western restaurants, pubs/bars, and coffee/beverage shops use fixed commercial-area codes. Categories with missing quarters are excluded. Only complete four-quarter years are compared. Each area’s 2021 level equals 100.
University districtYearNominal estimated sales indexTransaction count index
Sinchon & Ewha2021100.0100.0
Sinchon & Ewha2022132.6117.4
Sinchon & Ewha2023149.6129.7
Sinchon & Ewha2024145.3125.7
Sinchon & Ewha2025131.7111.6
Hongdae2021100.0100.0
Hongdae2022152.6131.2
Hongdae2023174.4143.3
Hongdae2024182.3149.1
Hongdae2025182.7150.0
Konkuk2021100.0100.0
Konkuk2022136.0117.5
Konkuk2023144.1119.0
Konkuk2024140.0116.9
Konkuk2025126.8104.5
Anam2021100.0100.0
Anam2022148.0148.9
Anam2023172.2199.4
Anam2024163.3187.7
Anam2025159.3178.1
Hoegi & Kyung Hee2021100.0100.0
Hoegi & Kyung Hee2022129.9109.3
Hoegi & Kyung Hee2023137.6112.8
Hoegi & Kyung Hee2024124.2102.6
Hoegi & Kyung Hee2025112.294.9
Chung-Ang & Heukseok2021100.0100.0
Chung-Ang & Heukseok2022142.0110.3
Chung-Ang & Heukseok2023149.6107.1
Chung-Ang & Heukseok2024145.395.8
Chung-Ang & Heukseok2025141.092.1

Area boundaries differ. Heukseok is a neighborhood commercial area; the others are selected major commercial areas. These figures do not measure entire campuses or rank universities.

Korean restaurants, Western restaurants, pubs/bars, and coffee/beverage shops use fixed commercial-area codes. Categories with missing quarters are excluded. Only complete four-quarter years are compared. Each area’s 2021 level equals 100.

Download district data CSVEstimated sales data ↗Store data ↗Commercial-area boundaries ↗Monthly-average validation ↗Service guide ↗Data revision history ↗Data notice ↗

Sources

Sources and definitions

Education statistics, institutional disclosures and birth records have different scopes and reference dates. Each measure is linked to its source.

Download statistics CSV