Korea's Education Fever in Numbers

Hagwons teach school subjects, test prep, music, art, sports and job skills, mostly after school and at weekends. The count is up from 63,724 in 2003. It covers registered hagwons only, not the smaller one-teacher tutoring rooms (교습소) or private tutors.

94,866 hagwons for 51,117,378 registered residents, as calculated by the national statistics office.

In 2024 South Korea had 90,385 hagwons and 39,853 fried chicken restaurants, a famously common sight of their own.

Share of elementary, middle and high school students who paid for private education (사교육), such as hagwons, tutors or online courses: 84.4% in elementary school, 73.0% in middle school and 63.0% in high school. Down from 80.0% in 2024.

About $19 billion at the 2025 average exchange rate (₩1,422 per US dollar, World Bank). Down from a record ₩29.2 trillion in 2024, the first fall since 2020.

About $425 a month. The figure is ₩792,700 for high school students. Averaged over all students, including those who took no private lessons, it is ₩457,500.

The highest share among OECD countries, ahead of Canada (67.7%) and Japan (67.5%). The OECD average is 48.8%. Among South Koreans aged 55 to 64, the share is 35.1%.

Only 1.1% of young South Korean adults have less than an upper-secondary education, the lowest share among countries in the OECD data (Japan does not report this figure). The OECD average is 12.6%.

The OECD average was 472. Among OECD countries only Japan scored higher (536), and the OECD places South Korea between 1st and 2nd. South Korea also scored 515 in reading and 528 in science. Some places outside the OECD, such as Singapore, scored higher.