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A walkway in Freedom Park, Incheon.

Most South Koreans live in urban areas, due to rapid migration from the countryside during the country's rapid economic expansion in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. The capital city ofSeoul is also the country's largest city and chief industrial center. It had 10.3 million inhabitants in 2006, making Seoul one of the most populated single cities in the world. Other major cities include Busan (3.65 million), Incheon (2.63 million), Daegu (2.53 million),Daejeon (1.46 million), Gwangju (1.41 million) and Ulsan (1.10 million).

The population has also been shaped by international migration. Following the division of the Korean peninsula after World War II, about four million people from North Korea crossed the border to South Korea. This trend of net entry reversed over the next forty years due to emigration, especially to the United States and Canada. However, South Korea's burgeoning economy and democracy in the early and mid-1990s slowed the high emigration rates typical of the previous decades. The current population of South Korea is roughly 48,850,000.

Although small, the percentage of non-Koreans has been increasing. Officially, as of the summer of 2007, there are just over 1 million foreigners living in Korea. That number includes foreign residents, students, tourists and illegal aliens. Among them, 104,749 people were married to Koreans, 404,051 were working in Korea and 225,273 were illegal aliens.

Korean farmers have a hard time finding a wife, as few women want to live in the countryside. Farmers are forced to look abroad to find their wife, mostly from Southeast Asia, and increasingly from Eastern Europe. For the year 2006, 41% of the marriages amongst the farmers were to foreign nationals.

There are 31,000 US military personnel.

Religion

Main article: Religion in South Korea

The Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul.

As of 2005, approximately 46.5% of the South Korean population express no religious preference.

Of the religious people, 29.3% are Christian(of which 18.3% (on total) profess to beProtestants and 10.9% to be Catholics), 22.8% are Buddhist, and the rest adheres to various new religious movements including Jeungism, Daesunism, Cheondoism and Wonbuddhism.

The largest Christian church in South Korea, Yoido Full Gospel Church, is located in Seoul Land has approximately 780,000 members (2003 estimate). Including Yoido Full Gospel, 11 of the world's 12 largest churches are located in Seoul (see Christianity in Korea). With nearly four million followers, Roman Catholicism may be the fastest growing religion since the late 1980s. South Korea is also the second largest missionary sending nation on earth, after the US.

A growing number of South Koreans adhere to new religious movements. Among these are Cheondoism (0.1%), Jeungism (0.07%) andDaesunjinrihoe. These religions have developed as a reaction to the influence of Christianity and Western culture in Korean society. The exact figures of the amount of followers of these new religions remain controversial.

Islam in Korea is estimated to be at 45,000 in addition to some 100,000 foreign workers from Muslim countries.

Largest cities

Main article: Cities of South Korea

The figures below are the 2007 estimates for the ten largest cities populations within administrative city limits; the figures below only include long-term residents.