Looking at the overall nation in terms of urbanity and rurality concentrations is essential in getting a big picture of a country's settlement system. One of the ways to identify urban areas is the differen tiation method in terms of the administrative system, and in the case of Korea, the smallest administrative units, that is, towns (eup), townships (myeon), neighborhoods (dong), exude a hierarchical tendency depending on the degree of urbanity. Neighborhoods (dong) tend to be very much urban, while townships (myeon) are more rural, with towns (eup) between the two as transitional zones. As of 2005, out of a total of 3,573 towns (eup), townships (myeon), and neighborhoods (dong), neighborhoods (dong) amount to 2,163 (60.5 percent), towns (eup) 210 (5.9 percent), and townships (myeon) 1,200 (33.6 percent). Population-wise, 81.5 percent of the total population resides in dongs, 8.3 percent in eups and the remainder of 10.2 percent in myeons. Given that dongs takes up much less space than myeons (see the Urban and Rural Areas map), the population density in dons is significantly higher than that in myeons.

A close look at the major metropolitan cities reveals that Seoul, Gwangju and Daejeon are all composed of dongs, while Busan, Daegu, Incheon and Ulsan have dong populations of 97.9 percent, 93.9 percent, 97.2 percent, and 84.2 percent, respectively. As for provinces (do), the proportion of population residing in dongs is starkly lower than that of the metropolitan cities, with that of Chungcheongnam-do and Jeollanam-do being merely 37.3 percent and 43.5 percent, respectively. However, Gyeonggi-do is highest at the provincial level, reaching 82.7 percent, similar to Ulsan. Given that it was 67.4 percent in 1990, the urban population has increased at a rapid pace. As the concept of urban-rural integrative cities was introduced, even at the city (si) and county (gun) levels, urbanization rates have been diverse (refer to the Urbanization Rate map).

Urbanization rates refer to the percentage of the urban population whose value might differ if only dongs were considered as urban areas or eups were also included in the calculation. The changes of urbanization rates throughout the nation are as follows (see Figure 1): they rapidly rose until the 1980s, and have gradually declined since then. This shows that in terms of the urbanization curve, Korea has entered the terminal stage from the acceleration stage. As of 2005, Korea's urbanization rates were 81.5 percent in only considering dongs, and 89.8 percent when including eups.

The urban system in a country can be most easily described when urban locations and populations are simultaneously given on a map. In the mid-1990s, as the concept of urban-rural integrative cities was adopted, the system of central places in Korea faced a change in form. That is, many rural central places included in the county unit came to belong to the adjacent city boundaries, becoming a part of urban-rural integrative cities. A comparison of the geographical distribution of the urban population size in 2005 and 1990 (refer to the Urban Population Distribution map) reveals that the enlargement of the Capital Region and the growth of port cities in the Southeast Industrial Belt are outstanding, a hint that the two regions are connected along the Seoul-Busan axis. Also, the growth of Daejeon, Cheongju-si and other cities in the Chungcheong Region, as well as cities in the Jeolla Region including Gwangju, Jeonju-si, and Mokpo-si is evident.

As of 2005, the population size of major metropolitan cities as follows: that of Seoul (9.8 million) and Busan (3.5 million) surpassed three million; that of Incheon and Daegu was about 2.5 million; Daejeon and Gwangju were about 1.4 million; and Ulsan about 1.05 million. Of the 77 general cities, those whose population tops 500,000 include Suwon-si (1,044 thousand), Seongnam-si (935 thousand), Goyang-si (867 thousand), Bucheon-si (839 thousand), Yongin-si (690 thousand), Ansan-si (682 thousand), Cheongju-si (643 thousand), Jeonju-si (623 thousand), Anyang-si (612 thousand), Cheonan-si (522 thousand), and Changwon-si (502 thousand). Nine of the 18 cities whose population amounts to over 500,000, including the major metropolitan cities, are located in the Capital Region, showing the severity of the population concentration there. The most populous towns (eup) included in counties is Hwasun-eup, Hwasun-gun in Jeollanam-do (43 thousand), while eight of the least populous eups have less than 5,000.

Land-value variation is another indicator used to grasp the dynamic features of urbanity and rurality. Regions with high land-value growth rates in cities imply that the utilization value of urban land has been boosted. Those with a high land-value rate in rural areas imply that a rapid conversion from rural to urban land usage has taken place. Such dynamism in the land-value growth is closely linked to the artificial land development taking place in the national territory, including the construction of new cities. The annual land-value variation rate reflects the growth rate of the land value for a given year, and is calculated by comparing land-values of standard parcels at the beginning of the year and the end of the year by region.

An investigation of the annual land-value variation rates for each metropolitan city and province (see Table 1) discloses several points. First, 2002 had the highest land-value growth rates since 2000. At that time, the high land price was driven by the Capital Regions (Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi-do). As of 2002, Gangnam-gu in Seoul recorded the highest land-value increase rate (22.61 percent). Out of 59 cities (si), counties (gun) and districts (gu) with more than 10 percent of the land-value growth rates, 57 were located in the Capital Region. Second, since 2003, the land-value growth rates have gradually increased, led not only by the continuous land price rise in the Capital Region, but also rises in Daejeon.

and Chungcheongnam-do. Three administrative units recording the highest rates in 2004 were Yeongi-gun (23.33 percent), Cheonan-si (17.82 percent), and Asan-si (17.60 percent). Other areas in the same province, such as Dangjin-gun, Hongseong-gun and Yesan-gun, also recorded high rates. Such a tendency continued into 2005, and rates in Yeongi-gun and Gongju-si in Chungcheongnam-do reached their highest of 27.71 percent and 17.73 percent, respectively. In 2006, five of the eight cities, counties and districts recording more than 10 percent of the land-value growth rates were located in Chungcheongnam-do and Chungcheongbuk-do. Such a land price rise is closely related to the attempt to construct a new administrative capital, the confirmed construction of the Multifunctional Administrative City, and established plans to build enterprise cities and innovation cities (refer to the map of Construction of New Concept Cities for Balanced National Development).

Recently, the digital divide is spotlighted as an indicator differentiating urban and rural areas. The urban and rural digital divide has been greatly eased thanks to various policies, including the establishment and operation of “information villages.”However, in terms of accessibility to information communications devices, usage capacity and utilization extent, rural regions still lag behind urban ones. The information advancement level among the general public nationwide versus farmers and fishers in 2006 (see Figure 2) was 50.2 as a comprehensive index covering all sectors. This implies that the information advancement level of farmers and fishers is almost a half of that of the general public nationwide. Sector-wise, accessibility of IT infrastructure including computers and Internet was 30.5, a significant advancement. However, in terms of the capacity (computer and Internet usage capability), and in terms of qualitative usage (utilization of information infrastructure), it was still high - 70.9 and 68.7, respectively.