South Korea’s physician workforce expanded by roughly 30,000 practitioners over the decade leading up to 2023, accompanied by substantial gains in average compensation. Yet this national growth failed to mend a widening geographic divide. The vast majority of incoming doctors concentrated heavily in the Seoul metropolitan area, leaving regional provinces to grapple with acute staffing shortages and an increasingly aging medical workforce.
A Decade of Earnings Growth and Expansion
By 2023, the average annual salary for a South Korean doctor climbed to 2억 8,518만 원. This figure secured physicians the highest earnings position in the nation’s healthcare sector, comfortably outpacing dentists, pharmacists, and nurses.
Throughout the ten-year tracking period, doctor compensation increased at an average annual rate exceeding 5%, outstripping every other domestic healthcare profession. Total active medical personnel—spanning general hospitals, nursing hospitals, and public health centers—grew to about 11만 2천 명 individuals as the workforce absorbed those 30,000 new practitioners.
Divergent Hiring Patterns Across Facilities
Growth rates split dramatically depending on the type of medical facility. Mid-to-small-sized general hospitals, regular hospitals, and large-scale nursing facilities logged sharp annual increases in physician staffing.
Institutions equipped to deliver rapid diagnosis and acute care, however, registered comparatively sluggish workforce growth. Analysts point to commercial incentives within private healthcare as the driving force behind this shift. Practitioners naturally gravitate toward higher-paying specialties and flexible practice environments, shunning high-intensity acute care.
The Capital Region Gravitational Pull
Even as total headcounts climbed nationwide, physician distribution grew heavily skewed toward the capital. The proportion of doctors practicing in Seoul, Gyeonggi Province, and Incheon expanded steadily.
Non-metropolitan cities and provincial districts experienced the exact inverse.
Provincial Decline and Accelerated Aging
Over the three-year period leading up to 2023, absolute physician numbers entered a definitive downward trend in Gangwon, North Gyeongsang, and North Jeolla provinces. Because the influx of fresh medical talent stalled entirely in these non-metropolitan zones, local facilities witnessed accelerated workforce aging among active physicians.
Policy experts emphasize that relying strictly on aggregate workforce expansion falls short of resolving structural imbalances. Without targeted incentives designed to steer practitioners toward regional posts and essential medical fields, underserved populations will continue facing diminished access to critical care.
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