Half of Ulsan Citizens Are 'Kim, Lee, Park'... Ulsan City Provides Statistical Service Based on Surnames

153 Total Surnames, 47 Out of 100 Citizens Are Kim, Lee, or Park

31 Rare Surnames with Fewer Than 100 People... Gyeon and Seol Have 8 Each

Ulsan City Hall.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] People have lived on Ulsan land since prehistoric times, but the introduction of Chinese characters and the formation of clans and families are believed to have started from the Silla period through the Goryeo era.

Approaching the population influx into Ulsan from the founding ancestors, or ‘Ip-hyangjo,’ of the first settled surnames in the villages to the present through statistics, it was found that citizens with the surnames ‘Kim,’ ‘Lee,’ and ‘Park’ account for nearly half, 47%, of Ulsan’s population.

Currently, there are 153 surnames in Ulsan, among which ‘Kim (金)’ has 262,050 people (23.1%), ‘Lee (李)’ 167,221 people (14.7%), and ‘Park (朴)’ 106,167 people (9.3%), totaling 47% of the population.

Ulsan City announced on the 17th that this result came from analyzing the surname statistics of the ‘2015 Population and Housing Census’ released by Statistics Korea, aiming to provide statistics that any citizen can easily and enjoyably access.

Typically, surname statistics are compiled every 15 years, so the next release will have to wait for the 2030 Population and Housing Census results.

The total number of surnames among Ulsan citizens is 153. Besides Kim, Lee, and Park, the order is ‘Choi (崔)’ with 57,255 people (5.0%), ‘Jung (鄭)’ 52,866 people (4.7%), ‘Kang (姜)’ 25,353 people (2.2%), and ‘Yoon (尹)’ 22,460 people (2.0%).

Looking at the composition ratio of major bon-gwan (clan origins) by surname, the bon-gwan of Kim (金) is ‘Gimhae’ (44.8%), Lee (李) is ‘Gyeongju’ (28.9%), Park (朴) is ‘Miryang’ (75.1%), Choi (崔) is ‘Gyeongju’ (56.7%), and Jung (鄭) is ‘Dongnae’ (30.6%) in the highest proportions.

Among the entire Ulsan population, the population ratio by bon-gwan shows that Gimhae Kim (金) is the largest with 117,361 people (10.3%), followed by Miryang Park (朴) with 106,167 people (7.0%), Gyeongju Lee (李) 48,316 people (4.3%), Gyeongju Kim (金) 45,580 people (4.0%), and Jeonju Lee (李) 32,538 people (2.9%).

There are also surnames with bon-gwan in Ulsan itself: ‘Ulsan Lee (李)’ with 3,783 people (0.33%), ‘Ulsan Park (朴)’ 3,023 people (0.27%), ‘Ulsan Kim (金)’ 1,866 people (0.16%), and ‘Ulsan Oh (吳)’ 62 people (0.01%), totaling four surnames.

Rare surnames with fewer than 100 people total 31, accounting for 20.3% of all surnames (153), and the population of rare surnames is 1,312, representing 0.1% of the total population.

Among rare surnames with fewer than 100 people, the five surnames with the smallest populations are ‘Gyeon (甄)’ and ‘Seol (?)’ each with 0.6% (8 people), followed by ‘Dang (唐)’ and ‘Si (柴)’ each with 0.8% (11 people), ‘Dan (段)’ 1.4% (11 people), ‘Seung (承)’ 1.7% (22 people), and ‘Do (陶), Sang (尙), Ho (胡)’ 1.8% (23 people).

The top five rare surnames are ‘Yu (庾)’ 7.5% (98 people), ‘Mok (睦)’ 7.0% (92 people), ‘Hyeong (邢)’ 6.2% (81 people), ‘Si (施)’ and ‘Gal (葛)’ each 5.1% (67 people), and ‘Jin (晋)’ and ‘On (溫)’ each 4.4% (58 people).

There are six two-syllable surnames in Ulsan, accounting for 3.9% of all surnames.

The total population with two-syllable surnames is 1,236, with ‘Hwangbo (皇甫)’ at 60.3% (745 people), ‘Namgung (南宮)’ 12.9% (160 people), ‘Jegal (諸葛)’ 11.8% (146 people), ‘Sagong (司空)’ 9.1% (112 people), ‘Seonu (鮮于)’ 3.7% (46 people), and ‘Seomun (西門)’ 2.2% (27 people).

Ulsan City plans to continue discovering and providing statistics that citizens will find interesting.