By Choi Sung-jin
"If you throw a stone from a hill in Seoul, chances are fifty-fifty that it would hit a Kim, Lee or Park." So goes a Korean joke showing how common the three surnames are.
A recent census has reaffirmed this _ one in every five Koreans living within the country has the family name of Kim, according to a recent population and housing survey by Statistics Korea.
The number of people with Kim as their surname totaled 10.69 million or 21.5 percent of the total population of 51.07 million.
Coming in second and third on the list of most common surnames are Lee or Yi (14.7 percent) and Park (8.4 percent).
Following the big-three were Choe or Choi (4.7 percent), Chung (4.3 percent), Kang (2.4 percent), Cho (2.1 percent), Yun or Yoon (2.1 percent), Chang (2.0 percent) and Lim or Im (1.7 percent).
The 10 most common surnames accounted for 63.9 percent of the total population, down slightly from the comparable ratio of 64.1 percent in 2000.
It was the national statistical agency's first survey of family names and clans in 15 years. Some Chinese characters were turned into more than one Korean surname through their pronunciation, as were the names of Yu (or Yoo) and Ryu.
Among the total of 5,582 family names in Korea as of last November, 1,507 had Chinese characters with the 4,075 being written in Korean letters only. Those surnames without Chinese characters were mostly used by former foreigners who become nationalized Korean citizens later.
There were 36,744 family clans, and 858 of them had 1,000 people or more. The so-called large clans totaled 48.6 million people, accounting for 97.8 percent of population.
By clan, the Kims originating from Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province, had the largest number of people with 4.45 million (9 percent of the population), followed by the Parks from Miryang, also South Gyeongsang, with 6.2 percent, the Lees from Jeonju, North Jeolla, with 5.3 percent, the Kims from Gyeongju (3.6 percent), the Lees from Gyeongju (2.8 percent), the Kangs from Jinju (1.9 percent), the Choes from Gyeongju (1.9 percent), the Kims from Gwangsan (1.9 percent), the Yuns from Papyeong (1.6 percent) and the Hans from Cheongju (1.5 percent).
Kim, Lee and Park accounted for 44.6 percent of family names and this share has remained almost unchanged from the medieval Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910). Gyeongju was the capital of the ancient Silla Kingdom (B.C. 57-A.D. 935) indicating why many large clans originated from the southeastern city.
"In Korea, the Confucian tradition still runs deep with people, an example of which is the practice of not allowing their children to use different surnames from those of their fathers," said Professor Kim Beom-jun of Sungkyunkwan University. "I don't think there will be many changes in the portions of family names in the future, either."
In the aftermath of the release of the census earlier the month, however, Statistics Korea has faced inquiries and protests from some people, especially the associations of some uncommon surnames and clans.
"Other clans have seen the number of their family members increase sharply, but why have ours decreased?" some protesting associations complained.
"The government's survey of family names and clans conducted every 15 years has increased and decreased their numbers at will, so we cannot believe it," other associations said.
Their protests do not seem to be totally without grounds. The family name of Hur originating from Gyeongju, for instance, numbered 271 people in 59 households in the 1985 census, and increased a whopping 24 times to 6,744 people in 2,199 families in 2000. This time around, its total number is not known as it was classified as a minor clan with 1,000 people or fewer.
Explaining the reasons for some disparities, a government official said that until the 2000 survey, the respondents had written their names in Chinese characters that did not reflect their names accurately or they selected the wrong clans, but the statistical agency resorted to administrative data, including family relation certificates for a more correct census this time around.
"To avoid controversy, we did not release some rare surnames and clans but lumped them together as ‘others,'" he said, adding they wanted to avoid data errors and possible infringement on private information.
Critics, however, said it is undesirable for the government to rough-hew official statistics for fear of causing controversies, especially in the matter of families and clans to which most Koreans give great importance.
"If you throw a stone from a hill in Seoul, chances are fifty-fifty that it would hit a Kim, Lee or Park." So goes a Korean joke showing how common the three surnames are.
A recent census has reaffirmed this _ one in every five Koreans living within the country has the family name of Kim, according to a recent population and housing survey by Statistics Korea.
The number of people with Kim as their surname totaled 10.69 million or 21.5 percent of the total population of 51.07 million.
Coming in second and third on the list of most common surnames are Lee or Yi (14.7 percent) and Park (8.4 percent).
Following the big-three were Choe or Choi (4.7 percent), Chung (4.3 percent), Kang (2.4 percent), Cho (2.1 percent), Yun or Yoon (2.1 percent), Chang (2.0 percent) and Lim or Im (1.7 percent).
The 10 most common surnames accounted for 63.9 percent of the total population, down slightly from the comparable ratio of 64.1 percent in 2000.
It was the national statistical agency's first survey of family names and clans in 15 years. Some Chinese characters were turned into more than one Korean surname through their pronunciation, as were the names of Yu (or Yoo) and Ryu.
Among the total of 5,582 family names in Korea as of last November, 1,507 had Chinese characters with the 4,075 being written in Korean letters only. Those surnames without Chinese characters were mostly used by former foreigners who become nationalized Korean citizens later.
There were 36,744 family clans, and 858 of them had 1,000 people or more. The so-called large clans totaled 48.6 million people, accounting for 97.8 percent of population.
By clan, the Kims originating from Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province, had the largest number of people with 4.45 million (9 percent of the population), followed by the Parks from Miryang, also South Gyeongsang, with 6.2 percent, the Lees from Jeonju, North Jeolla, with 5.3 percent, the Kims from Gyeongju (3.6 percent), the Lees from Gyeongju (2.8 percent), the Kangs from Jinju (1.9 percent), the Choes from Gyeongju (1.9 percent), the Kims from Gwangsan (1.9 percent), the Yuns from Papyeong (1.6 percent) and the Hans from Cheongju (1.5 percent).
Kim, Lee and Park accounted for 44.6 percent of family names and this share has remained almost unchanged from the medieval Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910). Gyeongju was the capital of the ancient Silla Kingdom (B.C. 57-A.D. 935) indicating why many large clans originated from the southeastern city.
"In Korea, the Confucian tradition still runs deep with people, an example of which is the practice of not allowing their children to use different surnames from those of their fathers," said Professor Kim Beom-jun of Sungkyunkwan University. "I don't think there will be many changes in the portions of family names in the future, either."
In the aftermath of the release of the census earlier the month, however, Statistics Korea has faced inquiries and protests from some people, especially the associations of some uncommon surnames and clans.
"Other clans have seen the number of their family members increase sharply, but why have ours decreased?" some protesting associations complained.
"The government's survey of family names and clans conducted every 15 years has increased and decreased their numbers at will, so we cannot believe it," other associations said.
Their protests do not seem to be totally without grounds. The family name of Hur originating from Gyeongju, for instance, numbered 271 people in 59 households in the 1985 census, and increased a whopping 24 times to 6,744 people in 2,199 families in 2000. This time around, its total number is not known as it was classified as a minor clan with 1,000 people or fewer.
Explaining the reasons for some disparities, a government official said that until the 2000 survey, the respondents had written their names in Chinese characters that did not reflect their names accurately or they selected the wrong clans, but the statistical agency resorted to administrative data, including family relation certificates for a more correct census this time around.
"To avoid controversy, we did not release some rare surnames and clans but lumped them together as ‘others,'" he said, adding they wanted to avoid data errors and possible infringement on private information.
Critics, however, said it is undesirable for the government to rough-hew official statistics for fear of causing controversies, especially in the matter of families and clans to which most Koreans give great importance.
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