Korea, Rep.: Intentional homicides (per 100,000 people)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2023, Korea, Rep.'s intentional homicides (per 100,000 people) fell 0.02 on 2022 (from 0.5 to 0.48).

Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1993 to 2022), the average change was −0.00136 and a typical year strayed about 0.1 from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.2 standard deviations below that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 0.21 in 1998 and the biggest yearly fall was 0.19 in 1994. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2014 to 2023 the straight-line trend is downward, about 0.03 a year. A straight line explains 89% of the movement over 10 observed years.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

A straight-line projection, tested first

Extending that straight line gives about 0.36 for 2026. We show this only because the same method, fitted on earlier years, predicted 2021 to 2023 better than "no change" would have: its average miss was 0.04, against 0.11 for assuming no change. Treat it as a continuation of the recent pattern, not a forecast of events: it cannot see a recession, a policy change or a revision to the data.

See how a linear trend forecast works and the guide on forecasting without fooling yourself.

How it compares

In 2023, Korea, Rep. had the 77th highest value of the 81 economies reporting that year. Higher is not always better: for some indicators the lowest value is the one to aim for. See the full ranking.

Closest to Korea, Rep. in the 2023 ranking

• Slovenia — 74th of 81: 0.57
• Malta — 75th of 81: 0.56
• Macao SAR, China — 76th of 81: 0.56
• Hong Kong SAR, China — 78th of 81: 0.38
• Japan — 79th of 81: 0.23
• Oman — 80th of 81: 0.14

What this measures

An intentional homicide is defined as an unlawful death inflicted upon a person with the intent to cause death or serious injury.

Limitations: Statistics reported to the United Nations in the context of its various surveys on crime levels and criminal justice trends are incidents of victimization that have been reported to the authorities in any given country. That means that this data is subject to the problems of accuracy of all official crime data. The survey results provide an overview of trends and interrelationships between various parts of the criminal justice system to promote informed decision-making in administration, nationally and internationally. The degree to which different societies apportion the level of culpability to acts resulting in death is also subject to variation.

Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a aggregate values are computed by unodc. for additional information, please see the unodc website: https://dataunodc.un.org/sites/dataunodc.un.org/files/metadata_intentional_homicide.pdf.

All 34 values

Intentional homicides (per 100,000 people) in nearby economies

• American Samoa — 25.54 (2018)
• Australia — 0.85 (2023)
• China — 0.5 (2020)
• Fiji — 2.06 (2023)
• Guam — 4.33 (2019)
• Hong Kong SAR, China — 0.38 (2023)
• Japan — 0.23 (2023)
• Macao SAR, China — 0.56 (2023)
• Malaysia — 0.73 (2023)
• Mongolia — 5.92 (2023)

More public sector data for Korea, Rep.

• Arms imports (SIPRI trend indicator values) — 222 million (2025)
• Military expenditure (current USD) — 47.77 billion (2025)
• Military expenditure (current LCU) — 67.92 trillion (2025)
• Military expenditure (% of GDP) — 2.6% (2025)
• Net incurrence of liabilities, total (current LCU) — 51.22 trillion (2024)
• Net incurrence of liabilities, total (% of GDP) — 2% (2024)
• Net investment in nonfinancial assets (current LCU) — 33.54 trillion (2024)
• Net investment in nonfinancial assets (% of GDP) — 1.31% (2024)
• Net lending (+) / net borrowing (-) (current LCU) — -45.65 trillion (2024)

Reading data like this

• Where to find free public data, and how to check it before you trust it — 2 min read
• Data analysis examples: 6 worked from one dataset — 3 min read
• Real change or random noise? A plain guide to reading your numbers — 2 min read

Questions people ask

What is Korea, Rep.'s intentional homicides (per 100,000 people)?

0.48 in 2023, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1990?

It is up 1.14% from 0.47 in 1990. The highest value was 1.1 in 2009 and the lowest 0.47 in 1990.

How does Korea, Rep. rank?

77th highest of 81 economies with data for 2023.

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator VC.IHR.PSRC.P5, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: UNODC Research - Data Portal – Intentional Homicide, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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