South Korea is the 13 most competitive nation in the world out of 140 countries ranked in the 2019 edition of the Global Competitiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum. Competitiveness Rank in South Korea averaged 19.46 from 2007 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 26.00 in 2015 and a record low of 11.00 in 2008. source: World Economic Forum



Related Last Previous Unit Reference
Business Confidence 71.00 72.00 points Mar 2026
Capacity Utilization 104.90 104.80 points Feb 2026
Car Production 387227.00 278250.00 Units Mar 2026
Car Registrations 164813.00 123275.00 Units Mar 2026
Changes in Inventories 2667.70 2945.00 KRW Billion Mar 2026
Coincident Index 115.70 114.70 points Feb 2026
Composite Leading Indicator 102.28 102.10 points Mar 2026
Corruption Index 63.00 64.00 Points Dec 2025
Corruption Rank 31.00 30.00 Dec 2025
Electricity Production 21529.98 23305.51 Gigawatt-hour Feb 2026
Industrial Production YoY -2.20 6.80 percent Feb 2026
Industrial Production MoM 5.40 -2.40 percent Feb 2026
Leading Economic Index 125.20 124.20 points Feb 2026
Manufacturing Production YoY -1.80 6.80 percent Feb 2026
Mining Production -11.80 -3.40 percent Feb 2026
New Orders 10147289.00 13970076.00 KRW Million Feb 2026
Steel Production 5400.00 4800.00 Thousand Tonnes Mar 2026


South Korea Competitiveness Rank
The most recent 2018 edition of Global Competitiveness Report assesses 140 economies. In 2018, the World Economic Forum introduced a new methodology emphasizing the role of human capital, innovation, resilience and agility, as not only drivers but also defining features of economic success in the 4th Industrial Revolution. As a result, the GCI scale changed to 1 to 100 from 1 to 7, with higher average score meaning higher degree of competitiveness. The report is made up of 98 variables organized into twelve pillars with the most important including: institutions; infrastructure; ICT adoption; macroeconomic stability; health; skills; product market; labour market; financial system; market size; business dynamism; and innovation capability.
Actual Previous Highest Lowest Dates Unit Frequency
13.00 15.00 26.00 11.00 2007 - 2019 Yearly