The largest cities of South Korea have an autonomous status equivalent to that of provinces.Seoul, the largest city and capital, is classified as ateukbyeolsi (Special City), while the next six-largest cities are classified asgwangyeoksi (Metropolitan Cities). Smaller cities are classified assi ("cities") and are under provincial jurisdiction, at the same level as counties.
Article 10 of the Local Autonomy Act defines the standards under which a populated area may become a city: an area which is predominantlyurbanised and has a population of at least 50,000; agun which has an urbanised area with a population of at least 50,000; or agun which has a total population of at least 150,000 and multiple urbanised areas each with a population of at least 20,000.[1]Cases outside of these standards require specific legislation, such as the special bill by theNational Assembly to designateGyeryong as a city.[citation needed]
Under Article 3 of the Local Autonomy Act, a city with a population of less than 500,000 may create administrative subdivisions in the form ofdong in its urbanised area andeup ormyeon in its rural area, while a city with a population of more than 500,000 may create administrative subdivisions in the form of non-autonomousgu.[2]
The national government can designate cities of at least 500,000 inhabitants as special status cities. This status expands the scope of administrative authority delegated from the provincial government to the city government.[3]There is no legal standard for becoming ametropolitan city, but a city was usually promoted to a metropolitan city when the population was close to 1,000,000. However, there are four cities (Suwon,Changwon,Goyang, andYongin) that have a population of more than one million but have not become metropolitan cities.[citation needed]
Abig city is a city (other than a special city or a metropolitan city) that has a population greater than 500,000, and has been designated by an order of the national government under Article 198 of the Local Autonomy Act. Big municipal cities are given the power to subdivide themselves intonon-autonomous districts (Korean: 일반구;Hanja: 一般區).[3]However, some big municipal cities have chosen not to divide themselves into districts, such asBucheon,Gimhae,Hwaseong, orNamyangju. Currently, South Korea has a total of 17 big cities. "Specific city" (특정시;特定市) is an unofficial term for big city with municipal status.[citation needed]
Due its legal status as an administrative city,Jeju City cannot be designated as a "big city" under the Local Autonomy Law, despite having an estimated population exceeding 500,000 as of 2022. The designation of "administrative city" was created by the law which granted special self-governing status toJeju Province; that law specifically states that the Local Autonomy Act would not apply to administrative cities. As such,Jeju City does not enjoy special autonomy and only has the same legal powers as the much smallerSeogwipo. The administrative authority ofJeju City is trying to expand the scope of administrative authority delegated from the provincial government to the city government.[4]
The name "Seoul" does not originate from hanja. The official Chinese translation is written as首爾/首尔, which is a transcription based on the pronunciation of "Seoul" in Mandarin variant of Chinese language, and thus is not hanja of Korean language. In old Chinese documents,漢城/汉城 was used. As an affix or abbreviation, the charactergyeong (京), which means "capital", is used.
Seoul was designated a "Special Independent City" (Teukbyeol-jayusi;특별자유시;特別自由市) separate from Gyeonggi Province on August 16, 1946; it became a "Special City" on August 15, 1949.
This is a list cities of South Korea by population including provincial-level divisions: special city (특별시/特別市) and metropolitan cities (광역시/廣域市), and municipal-level division: cities (시/市). Other municipal-level divisions: counties (군/郡 which have populations under 50K) and districts (구/區) are not included. All population data are based on the South Korean population and housing census 2000–2020.[5]
^지방자치법 [Local Autonomy Act] (As Amended by Law 18661). 28 December 2021. An English translation is available from the Korea Legislative Research Institute, but is out of date:Local Autonomy Act (As Amended by Law 16057). 24 December 2018. Article 7 of the 2018 version of the law is similar in content to Article 10 of the 2021 version of the law, aside from cross-references to other articles.
^Article 3, Local Autonomy Act (2021). Article 3 of the 2018 version of the law has similar provisions.
^abArticle 198, Local Autonomy Act (2021). Article 175 of the 2018 version of the law has similar provisions but is less detailed.
^Includes former county Yeongi; Current Sejong city contains some villages fromGongju and former county Cheongwon, North Chungcheong, and the population statistics of Yeongi county did not contain populations of those villages.