How healthy is South Korea?

Counted by the statistics office from the deaths reported to it: deaths in 2025 reported up to April 2026, by where people lived. The 24.9 in 100 is the office's own share; it gives 177.1 cancer deaths for every 100,000 people.

How many new cancers are found each year, how many people survive and children's cancer are published by the National Cancer Center under a licence that forbids changes of form and translation. Dooram shows none of them until the Center has given written permission, so South Korea has no cancer page yet.

Source: 국가데이터처, the Ministry of Data and Statistics (formerly Statistics Korea), 2025년 사망원인통계 결과 (Causes of death statistics in 2025 (release of 22 September 2026, with its PDF and HWPX files)), 2026, 표 4, 사망원인 순위 추이, and the figures by sex, 2025, read 20 October 2026.

Machines reported by hospitals, 31 December 2025

• Linear accelerators for radiotherapyIn 101 hospitals220
• Proton therapy machinesFor radiotherapy2
• CT scannersComputed tomography2,487
• MRI scannersMagnetic resonance imaging2,094
• PET scannersPositron emission tomography168

Every province and city had at least 2 linear accelerators, the machines that give most radiotherapy: Seoul 70, Gyeonggi 38 and Busan 18; Sejong, North Chungcheong and Ulsan 2 each.

Hospitals report every machine to the review service under the National Health Insurance Act. The figures are Dooram's sums of the file's count of machines; the file still lists Gwangju and South Jeolla apart, as they were until July 2026.

Source: 건강보험심사평가원, the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, 건강보험심사평가원_의료장비 상세 현황_20251231 (medical equipment in detail, every machine reported by hospitals, 31 December 2025), 장비수 by kind of machine, 31 December 2025, read 20 October 2026.

Fewer children had every vaccine due by their third birthday: from 84.4 in 100 in Gwangju to 90.8 in Sejong, in 2024.

Source: 보건복지부, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, 보건복지부_전국 어린이 예방접종률 현행화(3세)_백신 종류별_시도별_20241231 (children's vaccination coverage at age 3, by vaccine and province, 2024), 3세 완전접종률, 2024, read 20 October 2026.

A count, not a survey: every child aged three, from the disease agency's vaccination register, at the end of the year, by the address on record. The ministry's file gives the provinces and cities and no figure for the whole country.

The worldwide estimate counts the second dose, made the same way for every country; Dooram's grade uses it.

Sources: 보건복지부, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, 보건복지부_전국 어린이 예방접종률 현행화(3세)_백신 종류별_시도별_20241231 (children's vaccination coverage at age 3, by vaccine and province, 2024), 홍역 풍진 유행성이하선염 (measles, mumps and rubella), 2024, read 20 October 2026. World Health Organization and UNICEF, United Nations Statistics Division, SDG Global Database, read 11 October 2026.

The insurer's and the review service's yearbook for 2024, two of its tables: 52,999,168 people had public cover, 51,439,246 in the insurance and 1,559,922 with medical aid. The shares are Dooram's sums.

Source: 국민건강보험공단 (National Health Insurance Service) and 건강보험심사평가원 (Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service), 2024 건강보험통계연보 (National Health Insurance Statistical Yearbook) (the 2024 National Health Insurance Statistical Yearbook, published November 2025), Tables I-2 and I-3, 2024, read 20 October 2026.

The tests the law requires, month by month, at treatment plants run by K-water and by local governments, 60 items each. These are the plants' results, not water at the tap; Dooram counted the two kinds of bacteria, as the file gives no limits to count the other items against.

Source: 한국수자원공사, K-water (the Korea Water Resources Corporation), 한국수자원공사_법정수질검사결과_먹는물_정수장_20251231 (statutory water quality tests at drinking water treatment plants, every month of 2025), 총대장균군 and 대장균_분원성대장균군, January to December 2025, read 20 October 2026.

Private drinking-water wells over the radon level, 2023

The National Institute of Environmental Research tested 3,502 privately owned wells used for drinking in 2023. Radon, a natural radioactive gas, was over the level set for watching it, 148 becquerels in a litre, in 783 of them; uranium was over the drinking water standard, 30 micrograms in a litre, in 50 (1.4 in 100).

The ministry says most people who drink from such wells live where waterworks have not reached, and that it helps pay for treatment to lower radon and uranium. It does not say how the wells were chosen or how many people drink from them.

Source: 기후에너지환경부, the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment (then the Ministry of Environment), 2023년 개인지하수관정 조사 결과에 따라 자연방사성물질 저감시설 지속 지원 (the environment ministry's release of 12 July 2024: private groundwater wells used for drinking, natural radioactive substances, the 2023 survey by the National Institute of Environmental Research), read 20 October 2026.

The environment ministry's yearly waterworks statistics, in K-water's file and in the ministry's release. It says who is connected, not whether the water passed its tests.

480 treatment plants supplied it in 2024 (Dooram's sum of K-water's two rows, 442 run by local governments and 38 by K-water).

Sources: 한국수자원공사, K-water (the Korea Water Resources Corporation), from the environment ministry's waterworks statistics, 한국수자원공사_국가상수도 급수 인구 현황_20241231 (the national waterworks, people supplied, by province, 2024), 전국(지자체), 급수보급률, 2024, read 20 October 2026. 기후에너지환경부, the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, 상수도 보급률 99.5%… 국민 대부분 안정적 물복지 누린다 (2024년 상수도 통계 공표) (the environment ministry's release of its waterworks statistics for 2024, 21 January 2026), read 20 October 2026. 한국수자원공사, K-water (the Korea Water Resources Corporation), 한국수자원공사_국가상수도 정수 시설 현황_20241231 (the national waterworks, treatment plants, 2024), 개소수, 2024, read 20 October 2026. WHO and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme, United Nations Statistics Division, SDG Global Database, read 11 October 2026.

An estimate from a model of the whole country, not a reading from one place. It is the figure Dooram's air and water grade uses.

South Korea measures fine particles at hundreds of stations and publishes them every year, but its yearly air book carries no licence mark, and its publisher asks that unmarked work be agreed first, so Dooram shows the estimate until the publisher agrees.

Source: World Health Organization, United Nations Statistics Division, SDG Global Database, read 11 October 2026.