Korea cost of living calculator

Sources, line by line

Each line in the breakdown is labeled verified (primary Korean source) or estimate (no statistical primary source available; figure extrapolated). The lists below show what backs each line.

Verified lines

• Rent — neighborhood medians from lib/neighborhoods-data.ts (curated in this codebase).
• Apartment management fee (관리비) — Seoul average ₩3,344/m² from K-apt 2024 data, reported by Korea Real Estate Board. Source: K-apt April 2025 reporting.
• Electricity — KEPCO 2025 residential low-voltage 3-tier rate (910 won basic + 120 won/kWh tier 1; 1,600 + 214.6 tier 2; 7,300 + 307.3 tier 3). Source: KEPCO official rate page.
• Water — Seoul Metropolitan Government household water bills by household size, 2022 rates. Source: Seoul Policy Archive.
• Mobile + internet — SK Telecom Basic plan (49,000 won, 11 GB) and KT Essence 1 Gbps (44,000 won, 1-year contract) from official rate pages. MVNO range from Moyo aggregator. Sources: SKT, KT Global Shop, Moyo.
• Food + groceries (single-person line only) — Statistics Korea 2024 Annual Household Income & Expenditure Survey aggregate, scaled to 1-person ratio (58.4% of all-household). Source: Statistics Korea press release. Multi-person scaling is an estimate (KOSIS publishes per-household-size figures in Excel only).
• Transport (standard tier) — Seoul Climate Card 62,000 won/month unlimited pass. Per-ride subway 1,550 won, bus 1,500 won. Source: Seoul Metropolitan Government transit page.
• National Health Insurance — 2025 NHIS rate of 7.09% on gross wage, employee share 3.545% + long-term care 12.95% of HI premium ≈ 4.0% effective on gross. Spouse and children under 19 covered free as dependents. Sources: Ministry of Health and Welfare 2025 freeze decision, NHIS English guidance.
• Childcare and school-age education (standard and comfortable tiers) — Statistics Korea 2024 Private Education Spending Survey. Elementary national average 442,000 won/month per student; upper-income decile 676,000 won. Source: Statistics Korea press release.
• Jeonse opportunity-cost rate (3% annual) — Bank of Korea base rate 2.50% (May 2025), average new deposit rate ~2.9% (Nov 2025). Source: Bank of Korea.

Estimate lines (no primary statistical source)

• City gas (monthly average by apartment size) — KOGAS/Seoul published the per-MJ rate (22.36 won/MJ as of April 2026), but no government source publishes typical monthly bills by apartment size. The figures here are extrapolated from the rate and typical winter/summer usage.
• Multi-person food spending — KOSIS publishes household-size sub-tables in Excel only. The all-household and 1-person figures are verified; 2-person, 3-person, and 4-person figures are scaled estimates.
• Bare-bones and comfortable tier transit — Climate Card price is verified. Pay-per-ride (bare) and Climate Card + taxi budget (comfortable) are estimates.
• Bare-bones home internet — KT 1 Gbps Essence pricing is verified. The 25,000 won bare-bones figure is an estimate from secondary aggregator data.
• Childcare — bare and comfortable tier — Government subsidy amounts are verified (₩584K for age-0, ₩280K for ages 3-5, paid directly to the facility). Net parent co-payment at private daycare above the subsidy has no primary-source figure; estimated at 30K-600K depending on tier.
• Leisure — no primary-source survey of foreign-resident discretionary spending. Estimated.
• Misc + personal care — same as leisure. Estimated.

Important caveats

Apartment management fees often include utilities. In many Korean apartments, the 관리비 line covers electricity, gas, and water as 개별사용료 (individual usage fees). Treating them as separate lines (as this calculator does) makes the breakdown more transparent but can result in slight double-counting against your actual bill. Officetels and non-apartment housing typically pay these separately.

Jeonse rent shows as opportunity cost, not real outflow. A jeonse lease has zero monthly rent but locks up a large deposit. The calculator estimates the foregone return on that capital at 3% annually. Your real opportunity cost depends on what you would have done with the money instead.

NHI assumes employee track. The figures use the 직장가입자 (employed worker) rate. Non-employed foreign residents (including freelancers and dependents not covered by an employed sponsor) pay a 152,790 won/month minimum floor. If that's your situation, override the NHI line manually.

One-time costs are not included. The calculator estimates ongoing monthly burn. It does NOT cover move-in costs (deposit, agent fee, moving truck, appliances), annual settlements (year-end tax), or year-end gift exchanges.