KOREA FOUNDATION

Number of Global Hallyu Fans Increases 17-Fold Over Past Decade

In 2022, the KF’s Global Hallyu Status yearbook celebrates its 10th anniversary. A collection of materials on the status of Hallyu gathered through Korean diplomatic missions around the world, its first edition was published in 2012.

[For Global Hallyu Status online, click here: www.kf.or.kr/archives/ebook/ebook_list.do ]

As of December 2021, Global Hallyu Status 2021 reported 156.6 million Hallyu fans in the world. In 2012, when the yearbook was first published, the number of Hallyu fans was recorded as 9.26 million, and this has multiplied over 17 times over the past 10 years. By 2020, the number of Hallyu fans had exceeded the 100 million mark, and in 2021, it increased by 29 percent in a single year.

Global Hallyu Status 2021 covered 116 countries worldwide, 31 more than the 85 countries covered in 2012. By region, six countries were added in Asia and Oceania, one in the Americas, seven in Europe, and 17 in Africa and the Middle East. These numbers testify to the continuous geographical expansion of Hallyu. A breakdown of the 17-fold growth of global Hallyu fans shows that the number increased by 15 times in Asia and Oceania, 22 times in the Americas, 13 times in Europe, and a whopping 130 times in Africa and the Middle East. The numerical growth of Hallyu fans seems to have been accompanied by more diverse and solidly composed fandoms.

In celebration of the 10th anniversary of Global Hallyu Status, the KF will make its archive of accumulated data public through its statistics center at www.kf.or.kr/koreanstudies/hallyu.do. The archive is open to anyone interested in the brochures and Hallyu-related data that have been published over the past 10 years.

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