The largest cities of South Korea have an autonomous status equivalent to that of provinces. Seoul, the largest city and capital, is classified as a teukbyeolsi (Special City), while the next six-largest cities are classified as gwangyeoksi (Metropolitan Cities). Smaller cities are classified as si ("cities") and are under provincial jurisdiction, at the same level as counties.

City status

Article 10 of the Local Autonomy Act defines the standards under which a populated area may become a city: an area which is predominantly urbanised and has a population of at least 50,000; a gun which has an urbanised area with a population of at least 50,000; or a gun which has a total population of at least 150,000 and multiple urbanised areas each with a population of at least 20,000.^[1] Cases outside of these standards require specific legislation, such as the special bill by the National Assembly to designate Gyeryong as a city.^{[citation needed]}

Under Article 3 of the Local Autonomy Act, a city with a population of less than 500,000 may create administrative subdivisions in the form of dong in its urbanised area and eup or myeon in its rural area, while a city with a population of more than 500,000 may create administrative subdivisions in the form of non-autonomous gu.^[2]

Classifications for large municipal cities

The national government can designate cities of at least 500,000 inhabitants as special status cities. This status expands the scope of administrative authority delegated from the provincial government to the city government.^[3] There is no legal standard for becoming a metropolitan city, but it was usually promoted to a metropolitan city when the population was close to 1,000,000. However, considering that there are four cities in Suwon, Changwon, Goyang, and Yongin that have a population of more than 1 million but have not become metropolitan cities, there is no further promotion.^{[citation needed]}

Big city

A big city is a city (other than a special city or a metropolitan city) that has a population greater than 500,000, and has been designated by an order of the national government under Article 198 of the Local Autonomy Act. Big municipal cities are given the power to subdivide themselves into non-autonomous districts (일반구; 一般區).^[3] However, some big municipal cities have chosen not to divide themselves into districts, such as Bucheon, Gimhae, Hwaseong, or Namyangju. Currently, South Korea has a total of 17 big cities. "Specific city" (특정시, 特定市) is an unofficial term for big city with municipal status.^{[citation needed]}

Due its legal status as an administrative city, Jeju City cannot be designated as a "big city" under the Local Autonomy Law, despite having an estimated population exceeding 500,000 as of 2022. The designation of "administrative city" was created by the law which granted special self-governing status to Jeju Province; that law specifically states that the Local Autonomy Act would not apply to administrative cities. As such, Jeju City does not enjoy special autonomy and only has the same legal powers as the much smaller Seogwipo City. The administrative authority of Jeju City is trying to expand the scope of administrative authority delegated from the provincial government to the city government.^[4]

Special-status city

A special-status city is a subclass of big municipal city that has a population greater than 1,500,000.

List

Notes

• The name "Seoul" does not originate from hanja. The official Chinese translation is written as 首爾/首尔, which is a transcription based on the pronunciation of "Seoul", but 漢城/汉城 remains frequently used. As an affix or abbreviation, the character gyeong (京), which means "capital", is used.
• Seoul was designated a "Special Independent City" (Teukbyeol-jayusi; 특별자유시; 特別自由市) separate from Gyeonggi Province on August 16, 1946; it became a "Special City" on August 15, 1949.

Cities by population

This is a list cities of South Korea by population including provincial-level divisions: special city (특별시/特別市) and metropolitan cities (광역시/廣域市), and municipal-level division: cities (시/市). Other municipal-level divisions: counties (군/郡 which have populations under 50K) and districts (구/區) are not included. All population data are based on the South Korean population and housing census 2000–2020.^[5]

Rank	Division		2020	2015	2010	2005	2000
1	Seoul	(Special city)	9,586,195	9,904,312	9,631,482	9,762,546	9,853,972
2	Busan	(Metropolitan city)	3,349,016	3,448,737	3,393,191	3,512,547	3,655,437
3	Incheon	(Metropolitan city)	2,945,454	2,890,451	2,632,035	2,517,680	2,466,338
4	Daegu	(Metropolitan city)	2,410,700	2,466,052	2,431,774	2,456,016	2,473,990
5	Daejeon	(Metropolitan city)	1,488,435	1,538,394	1,490,158	1,438,551	1,365,961
6	Gwangju	(Metropolitan city)	1,477,573	1,502,881	1,466,143	1,413,644	1,350,948
7	Suwon	Gyeonggi	1,210,150	1,194,313	1,054,053	1,039,233	944,239
8	Ulsan	(Metropolitan city)	1,135,423	1,166,615	1,071,673	1,044,934	1,012,110
9	Yongin	Gyeonggi	1,066,975	971,327	847,138	686,842	384,741
10	Goyang	Gyeonggi	1,045,497	990,073	897,222	864,402	762,598
11	Changwon[6]	South Gyeongsang	1,029,389	1,059,241	1,047,488	1,075,326	1,076,448
12	Seongnam	Gyeonggi	922,025	948,757	936,267	931,019	912,222
13	Hwaseong[7]	Gyeonggi	880,859	608,725	474,160	282,124	185,979
14	Cheongju[8]	North Chungcheong	855,326	833,276	804,119	752,768	701,256
15	Bucheon	Gyeonggi	833,148	843,794	842,482	833,931	757,832
16	Ansan	Gyeonggi	717,345	747,035	699,063	669,839	554,998
17	Namyangju	Gyeonggi	696,033	629,061	526,639	424,446	339,545
18	Cheonan	South Chungcheong	682,199	629,062	565,201	518,171	415,818
19	Jeonju	North Jeolla	666,517	658,172	646,512	622,092	615,804
20	Gimhae	South Gyeongsang	552,427	534,124	484,244	428,893	330,829
21	Pyeongtaek	Gyeonggi	542,522	457,873	381,731	374,262	342,806
22	Anyang	Gyeonggi	542,336	585,177	596,772	609,886	578,845
23	Siheung	Gyeonggi	535,147	425,184	393,293	384,304	304,260
24	Pohang	North Gyeongsang	501,109	511,804	508,736	488,433	515,187
25	Jeju (City)[9]	Jeju (Prov.)	492,306	451,758	398,677	391,132	366,809
26	Uijeongbu	Gyeonggi	449,572	421,579	415,170	397,694	354,422
27	Gimpo	Gyeonggi	474,546	352,683	217,280	192,716	148,576
28	Paju	Gyeonggi	460,541	415,345	323,955	239,823	177,128
29	Gumi	North Gyeongsang	416,603	421,075	399,019	381,583	339,457
30	Gwangju[10]	Gyeonggi	385,141	310,278	224,269	204,266	124,789
31	Sejong[11]	(Special autonomous city)	353,933	204,088	80,542	80,389	79,745
32	Wonju	Gangwon	352,429	330,854	309,803	283,583	267,849
33	Jinju	South Gyeongsang	352,403	349,788	335,297	336,355	339,413
34	Yangsan	South Gyeongsang	351,206	297,532	249,529	215,845	191,147
35	Asan	South Chungcheong	340,518	319,929	272,282	206,851	179,900
36	Gwangmyeong	Gyeonggi	298,116	338,509	326,418	319,452	333,596
37	Iksan	North Jeolla	285,312	301,723	294,479	306,974	322,636
38	Chuncheon	Gangwon	284,645	281,596	274,220	260,234	252,177
39	Gyeongsan	North Gyeongsang	283,733	278,500	260,643	240,371	226,713
40	Hanam	Gyeonggi	279,795	154,838	137,569	121,646	120,149
41	Gunpo	Gyeonggi	275,571	285,721	274,198	268,917	262,593
42	Suncheon	South Jeolla	272,449	265,390	257,800	261,519	265,724
43	Yeosu	South Jeolla	271,505	273,761	268,727	277,420	303,115
44	Gunsan	North Jeolla	269,023	275,155	258,845	249,212	272,129
45	Gyeongju	North Gyeongsang	261,778	262,310	252,750	266,131	275,132
46	Geoje	South Gyeongsang	246,965	261,371	225,014	193,398	167,231
47	Osan	Gyeonggi	240,645	213,840	180,996	131,792	102,287
48	Yangju[12]	Gyeonggi	233,286	205,988	183,673	149,931	107,440
49	Icheon	Gyeonggi	226,212	209,003	192,918	187,514	179,081
50	Mokpo	South Jeolla	224,509	239,524	248,694	244,543	250,336
51	Chungju	North Chungcheong	218,412	211,005	201,361	204,248	217,510
52	Gangneung	Gangwon	216,542	215,677	217,481	220,706	227,856
53	Anseong	Gyeonggi	203,030	194,765	175,824	157,632	132,906
54	Guri	Gyeonggi	192,051	180,063	184,503	186,954	160,485
55	Seogwipo[13]	Jeju (Prov.)	178,552	153,861	129,734	139,554	145,732
56	Seosan	South Chungcheong	176,379	169,221	155,082	143,692	142,972
57	Dangjin[14]	South Chungcheong	168,955	163,762	135,106	112,267	117,447
58	Uiwang	Gyeonggi	160,230	154,879	143,378	143,568	117,594
59	Andong	North Gyeongsang	159,412	168,581	165,399	169,436	181,974
60	Pocheon[15]	Gyeonggi	157,939	163,388	136,580	139,472	135,758
61	Gwangyang	South Jeolla	143,928	144,414	137,100	135,583	132,568
62	Gimcheon	North Gyeongsang	139,145	137,540	126,823	135,166	147,269
63	Jecheon	North Chungcheong	134,768	136,350	133,626	132,483	143,537
64	Tongyeong	South Gyeongsang	127,984	137,208	127,896	121,115	123,747
65	Nonsan	South Chungcheong	119,707	124,246	117,686	124,779	137,452
66	Yeoju[16]	Gyeonggi	113,352	109,937	100,052	98,441	97,412
67	Naju	South Jeolla	113,293	92,582	77,825	86,823	99,233
68	Sacheon	South Gyeongsang	111,184	113,335	106,175	106,532	110,912
69	Gongju[17]	South Chungcheong	108,333	113,542	120,660	126,484	130,223
70	Jeongeup	North Jeolla	106,706	110,627	109,458	115,416	128,892
71	Yeongju	North Gyeongsang	103,818	109,266	108,268	113,670	126,415
72	Miryang	South Gyeongsang	103,228	103,069	98,564	105,651	115,787
73	Yeongcheon	North Gyeongsang	100,353	97,669	94,350	103,289	110,918
74	Boryeong	South Chungcheong	99,088	101,852	97,091	96,992	109,423
75	Sangju	North Gyeongsang	95,473	98,760	97,559	105,600	116,365
76	Dongducheon	Gyeonggi	95,239	97,424	90,433	78,897	72,366
77	Donghae	Gangwon	87,801	90,255	90,321	93,018	96,280
78	Sokcho	Gangwon	80,054	79,846	80,505	84,706	87,880
79	Gimje	North Jeolla	79,733	84,269	82,739	90,376	102,428
80	Namwon	North Jeolla	78,097	80,499	78,425	85,828	94,810
81	Mungyeong	North Gyeongsang	68,212	71,863	68,692	70,813	90,778
82	Samcheok	Gangwon	65,939	69,509	67,131	67,957	75,592
83	Gwacheon	Gyeonggi	58,018	64,817	66,319	56,587	66,592
84	Taebaek	Gangwon	41,494	46,715	51,400	55,241	54,164
85	Gyeryong[18]	South Chungcheong	40,854	39,243	41,395	31,646	27,104

Renamed cities

Dissolved cities

Claimed cities

Gallery

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  4 - Daegu
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  5 - Daejeon
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  6 - Gwangju
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  7 - Suwon
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  8 - Ulsan
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  9 - Changwon
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  12 - Seongnam