*This content was translated by AI.
Foreigners' favorability of Korea reached an all-time high, according to the survey.
On the 20th, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Minister Choi Hwi-young) announced the "2025 National Image Survey Results of Korea," which was conducted on 13,000 people from 26 countries (October 1 to 31, 2025).
According to the survey, foreigners' favorability toward Korea rose 3.3 percentage points (p) from the previous year to 82.3 percent, the highest level since the survey began in 2018. The favorability by year is 78.7% (2018) → 76.7% (2019) → 78.1% (2020) → 80.5% (2021) → 79.3% (2022) → 77.5% (2023) → 79.0% (2024).
On the other hand, Koreans' favorability toward Korea is 60.4%, up 8.2 percentage points from the previous year, and the national image that Koreans evaluate themselves is lower than that of people around the world.
By country, the United Arab Emirates (94.8%) has the highest favorability for Korea, followed by Egypt (94.0%), the Philippines (91.4%), Turkiye (90.2%), India (89.0%), and South Africa (88.8%). The high favorability of Middle East/African countries suggests that positive cooperation conditions have been created in the recent active exchange trend between the government and Middle East/African countries.
In the case of Thailand and the U.K., Korea's favorability increased sharply by 9.4 percentage points (76.8% → 86.2%) and 9.2 percentage points (78.2% → 87.4%), respectively, compared to the previous year. Thailand is noteworthy in that it has overcome the temporary plunge in favorability (76.8% in 2024) of the previous year and has entered a recovery phase again. The UK not only recorded above-average favorability for the first time since the survey, but it is the only European country with above-average favorability.
China and Japan's favorability toward Korea is 62.8% and 42.2% respectively, which are relatively low compared to other countries, but positive changes in perception are showing, up 3.6 percentage points and 5.4 percentage points, respectively, compared to the previous year. In particular, Japan recorded the highest favorability rating since the survey. In the case of Japan, it remained at 20.0% in 2018 and 18.8% in 2019.
Cultural content (45.2%) was found to have the most positive effect on Korea's overall favorability. It shows that various cultural contents such as K-pop, dramas, and movies are contributing to expanding Korea's cultural influence and enhancing the national image through this. In particular, cultural contents were found to have a large impact in Asia/Pacific regions such as the Philippines (69.3%), Japan (64.4%), Indonesia (59.5%), and Vietnam (58.4%).
Modern life culture (31.9%), products and brands (28.7%), and economic level (21.2%) were the factors that positively influenced Korea's favorability. In particular, in the Middle East/Africa region, which has a high affinity for Korea, economic factors such as products, brands, and economic levels in addition to cultural factors contributed to increasing Korea's favorability.
As for the routes that contact Korea, video platforms (64.4%), Nuri communication networks (social networks, 56.6%), Internet sites (46.7%), and broadcasting (32.8%) were found to be in contact through various channels. Among the video platforms that appeared as the main media, YouTube (77.4%), Netflix (65.1%) and Amazon Prime (27.8%) were mainly used, and among the Nuri communication networks, Instagram (63.7%), TikTok (56.2%), and Facebook (53.6%) were mainly used.
Meanwhile, according to an in-depth interview on the national image survey conducted on Korean information high-ranking women, including international students studying in Korea, foreign journalists, and 70 foreigners living abroad, the framework for people around the world to view Korea has expanded over the past year. In the past, Korea was recognized based on security issues, idols, and K-pop, but in the past year, interest in culture, economy, society, and politics has expanded.
In particular, they positively viewed the resilience of the Korean democratic system to overcome political turmoil with citizens' power. Although the political issues of the past year appeared unstable on the surface, it is evaluated that it served as an opportunity to prove the dynamics of Asian democracy in depth.
The "2025 National Image Survey Report" can be found on the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's website.
Gong Hyung-sik, head of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's National Communication Office, said, "Through the results of this survey, we were able to realize the high favorability of people around the world toward Korea and the influence of 'K-culture' and 'K-content'.
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*This content was translated by AI.
