Last Year, Land Area Expanded by 3.6 Times the Size of Yeouido

According to the '2025 Cadastral Statistics' announced by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on the 31st, as of the end of last year (December 31, 2024), the total national land area was 100,459.9㎢, an increase of 10.5㎢ compared to the previous year. This corresponds to approximately 3.6 times the area of Yeouido. It is analyzed that land development projects such as the Incheon Free Economic Zone reclamation and the Jeonnam Namak Oryong District housing development influenced this increase.

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The provinces with the largest land areas nationwide are Gyeongbuk (18,428.1㎢), Gangwon (16,830.8㎢), and Jeonnam (12,363.1㎢), in that order. Sejong (465.0㎢), Gwangju (501.0㎢), and Daejeon (539.8㎢) had the smallest areas.

Looking at land use trends over the past 10 years, agricultural land such as rice paddies, fields, and orchards, as well as forest land, decreased by 1,630.1㎢, while residential, industrial, and transportation infrastructure steadily increased. Living infrastructure, including residential land and school sites, increased by 507.5㎢ (16%), factory and warehouse land by 276.7㎢ (28%), and transportation facilities such as roads and railways by 434.9㎢ (13%). In particular, recreational and leisure land increased by 254.1㎢ (47%), reflecting the trend of improving urban residents' quality of life.

By land category, forest land accounted for the largest share at 63.0%, followed by rice paddies (10.8%) and fields (7.4%). Meanwhile, residential land and road areas increased by 16.8% and 13.1%, respectively, over the past 10 years, clearly indicating the pace of urbanization.

By ownership type, private ownership accounted for the largest share at 49.6%, followed by national land (25.6%) and corporations (7.6%). Notably, corporate-owned land increased by 13.2% over the past 10 years, with factory land and residential land increasing by 176㎢ and 112㎢, respectively. This is evidence that industrial complex development is actively continuing.

Yoo Sang-cheol, Director of the Spatial Information System Division at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, stated, “Cadastral statistics are important basic data that numerically show the spatial changes of the national land,” and added, “We plan to distribute them to public institutions, schools, and libraries and provide electronic files as well, so they can be utilized in various fields such as policy making and academic research.”

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