South Korea

Summary

South Korea is a country in Asia that is home to 3 living indigenous languages. One of these, Korean, is the official language of the country. In addition, 1 non-indigenous language is established within the country. The literacy rate in South Korea is 98%. In formal education, 2 indigenous languages are used as languages of instruction.

At a Glance

Geography
Clickable world globe showing country outlines
Demographics
51,611,000
people
3
living languages
98% (2019 World Factbook)
literate
Language Vitality Count
1. Institutional
  3
2. Stable
  0
3. Endangered
  1
4. Extinct
  0
Details
This graph shows the profile of languages in South Korea with respect to their level of language vitality.
Institutional — The language has been developed to the point that it is used and sustained by institutions beyond the home and community.
Stable — The language is not being sustained by formal institutions, but it is still the norm in the home and community that all children learn and use the language.
Endangered — It is no longer the norm that children learn and use this language.
Extinct - The language is no longer used and no one retains a sense of ethnic identity associated with the language.
These four summary levels have been derived by grouping levels in the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS), which is the more fine-grained scale that Ethnologue uses to assess the status of every language in terms of development versus endangerment; see Language Status for a description of the levels of that scale. See also the pages on Development and Endangerment for more discussion.