Koreans

Genetics

Geographic location and dates of ancient individuals in Northeast Asia. The Bronze Age West Liao River farmers (WLR_BA) display long-term genetic continuity with modern Koreans.

Proto-Macro-Koreanic arrived after Proto-Japonic from Liaodong and the Changbaishan region with the introduction of bronze daggers around 300 BC.^[32]

A population genetic study examined the origins of Koreans using 13 polymorphic and 7 monomorphic blood genetic markers (serum proteins and red cell enzymes) from 437 Koreans. Genetic distance analyses, performed through cluster and principal components models, compared Koreans with eight populations: Chinese Koreans, Japanese, Han Chinese, Mongolians, Zhuangs, Malays, Javanese, and Soviet Asians. This analysis, based on 47 alleles across 15 polymorphic loci, demonstrated that Koreans genetically originated from central Asian Mongolians. A more detailed analysis using 65 alleles across 19 polymorphic loci reinforced these findings, revealing a closer genetic relationship between Koreans and Japanese and a more distant relationship with Han Chinese. The results align with ethnohistoric accounts of the origin of Koreans and their language. Additionally, minority Koreans in China were shown to have maintained their distinct genetic identity.^[33]

Modern Koreans can be modeled to be derived primarily from Bronze Age farmers from the West Liao River.^[34] West Liao River farmers of the Bronze Age themselves can be modelled to be derived from the combination of two Ancient Northern East Asian lineages, namely "Neolithic Yellow River farmers" and Ancient Northeast Asians (Amur hunter-gatherers) during the Neolithic period. The spread of Proto-Koreanic can be linked to the expansion of Bronze Age West Liao River farmers. It is also suggested that this type of ancestry was introduced into the Japanese gene pool by early Koreanic speakers, during the Kofun period.^[35] WLR_BA ancestry is also associated with the Upper Xiajiadian culture, which in turn can be used as source proxy for Bronze Age and modern Koreans.^[36][37] Wang and Wang (2022) stated that Koreans in the Three Kingdoms Period had Jōmon ancestry, which ranged from 10% to 95%,^[38] and significantly contributed to the genetic makeup of modern Koreans. But subsequent arrivals of newcomers from Manchuria 'diluted' this Jomon ancestry and made the Koreans genetically homogenous.^[39] One study suggests that modern Koreans may have approximately 85% of their ancestry from Bronze Age populations of the West Liao River region and 15% from settlers associated with Taiwan's Hanben culture. Additionally, interactions with southern Chinese settlers are proposed to account for significant genetic variation in ancient populations, such as Iron Age Cambodians.^{[40] [41]}

Koreans display high frequencies of the Y-DNA haplogroups O2-M122 (approximately 40% of all present-day Korean males), O1b2-M176 (approximately 30%), and C2-M217 (approximately 15%).^[42] Some regional variance may exist; in a study of South Korean Y-DNA published in 2011, the ratio of O2-M122 to O1b2-M176 is greatest in Seoul-Gyeonggi (1.8065), with the ratio declining in a counterclockwise direction around South Korea (Chungcheong 1.6364, Jeolla 1.3929, Jeju 1.3571, Gyeongsang 1.2400, Gangwon 0.9600).^{[43][44][45][46][47]} Haplogroup C2-M217 tends to be found in about 13% of males from most regions of South Korea, but it is somewhat more common (about 17%) among males from the Gyeongsang region in the southeast of the peninsula and somewhat less common (about 7%) among males from Jeju, located off the southwest coast of the peninsula.^[48] Haplogroup C2-M217 has been found in a greater proportion (about 26%) of a small sample (n=19) of males from North Korea.^[49][50] However, haplogroups are not a reliable indicator of an individual's overall ancestry; Koreans are more similar to one another in regard to their autosomes than they are similar to members of other ethnic groups. Studies of polymorphisms in the human Y-chromosome have so far produced evidence to suggest that the Korean people have a long history as a distinct, mostly endogamous ethnic group, with successive prehistoric waves of people moving to the peninsula and two major Y-chromosome haplogroups.^[51] The mitochondrial DNA markers (mtDNA haplogroups and HVR-I sequences) of Korean populations showed close relationships with Manchurians, Japanese, Mongolians and northern Chinese but not with Southeast Asians. Y-chromosomal distances showed a close relationship to most East Asian population groups, including Southeast Asian ones.^[52] Ancient genome comparisons revealed that the genetic makeup of Koreans can be best described as an admixture of the Neolithic Devil's Gate genome in the Amur region in the Russian Far-East adjacent to North Korea as well as that of rice-farming agriculturalists from the Yangtze river valley.^[53] The results from the findings in the Devil's Gate showed that the ancient populations of the area were already admixed from both Northeast Asian and Southeast Asian sources. These groups correlate closely to modern Koreanic and Japonic, who form a cluster in regional comparisons, along with certain Tungusic groups, such as Ulchis, Nanais, and Oroqens.^[54]

Koreans share a close genetic relationship with Yamato Japanese and Manchu populations, as well as other Tungusic-speaking groups, reflecting shared ancestry and historical interactions. Additionally, they exhibit genetic affinity with northern Han Chinese populations, though to a lesser degree compared to Manchu and Japanese populations. These relationships are supported by genome-wide analyses highlighting the complex genetic structure of East Asian populations.^{[11][12][14][55][56][13]} The study "Genomic insights into the formation of human populations in East Asia" states that Koreans are genetically closest to Yamato Japanese based on FST genetic distance measurements. The research highlights the complex genetic structure of East Asian populations, shaped by historical migrations and admixture events.^[57] The reference population for Koreans used in Geno 2.0 Next Generation is 94% Eastern Asia and 5% Southeast Asia & Oceania.^[58]

Genealogy

Korea Foundation Associate Professor of History, Eugene Y. Park said that many Koreans seem to have a genealogical memory blackout before the twentieth century.^[59][60] According to him the vast majority Koreans do not know their actual genealogical history. Through "inventing tradition" in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, families devised a kind of master narrative story that purports to explain a surname-ancestral seat combination's history to the extent where it is next to impossible to look beyond these master narrative stories.^[61] He gave an example of what "inventing tradition" was like from his own family's genealogy where a document from 1873 recorded three children in a particular family and a later 1920 document recorded an extra son in that same family.^[62] Park said that these master narratives connect the same surname and ancestral seat to a single, common ancestor. This trend became universal in the nineteenth century, but genealogies which were published in the seventeenth century actually admit that they did not know how the different lines of the same surname or ancestral seat are related at all.^[63] Only a small percentage of Koreans had surnames and ancestral seats to begin with, and that the rest of the Korean population had adopted these surname and ancestral seat identities within the last two to three hundred years.^[64]

South Korea

In June 2012, South Korea's population reached 50 million^[70] and by the end of 2016, South Korea's population has surpassed 51 million people.^[71] Since the 2000s, South Korea has been struggling with a low birthrate, leading some researchers to suggest that if current population trends hold, the country's population will shrink to approximately 38 million population towards the end of the 21st century.^[72] In 2018, fertility in South Korea became again a topic of international debate after only 26,500 babies were born in October and an estimated of 325,000 babies in the year, causing the country to have the lowest birth rate in the world.^[73][74][75]

North Korea

Estimating the size, growth rate, sex ratio, and age structure of North Korea's population has been extremely difficult. Until release of official data in 1989, the 1963 edition of the North Korea Central Yearbook was the last official publication to disclose population figures. After 1963 demographers used varying methods to estimate the population. They either totalled the number of delegates elected to the Supreme People's Assembly (each delegate representing 50,000 people before 1962 and 30,000 people afterwards) or relied on official statements that a certain number of persons, or percentage of the population, was engaged in a particular activity. Thus, on the basis of remarks made by President Kim Il Sung in 1977 concerning school attendance, the population that year was calculated at 17.2 million persons. During the 1980s, health statistics, including life expectancy and causes of mortality, were gradually made available to the outside world.^[76]

In 1989, the Central Bureau of Statistics released demographic data to the United Nations Population Fund in order to secure the UNFPA's assistance in holding North Korea's first nationwide census since the establishment of the state in 1948. Although the figures given to the United Nations might have been distorted, it appears that in line with other attempts to open itself to the outside world, the North Korean regime has also opened somewhat in the demographic realm. Although the country lacks trained demographers, accurate data on household registration, migration, and births and deaths are available to North Korean authorities. According to the United States scholar Nicholas Eberstadt and demographer Brian Ko, vital statistics and personal information on residents are kept by agencies on the ri ("village", the local administrative unit) level in rural areas and the dong ("district" or "block") level in urban areas.^[76]

Korean diaspora

Korean emigration to the U.S. was known to have begun as early as 1903, but the Korean American community did not grow to a significant size until after the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965; as of 2017, excluding the undocumented and uncounted, roughly 1.85 million Koreans emigrants and people of Korean descent live in the United States according to the official figure by the US Census.^[77] The Greater Los Angeles Area and New York metropolitan area in the United States contain the largest populations of ethnic Koreans outside of Korea or China. The Korean population in the United States represents a small share of the American economy, but has a disproportionately positive impact.^{[citation needed]} Korean Americans have a savings rate double that of the U.S. average and also graduate from college at a rate double that of the U.S. average, providing highly skilled and educated professionals to the American workforce.^{[citation needed]} According to the U.S. Census Bureau's Census 2021 data, median household earnings for Korean Americans was $82,946, approximately 19.0% higher than the U.S. average at the time of $69,717.^[78]

Significant Overseas Korean populations are also present in China, Japan, Argentina, Brazil, and Canada as well. The number of Koreans in Indonesia grew during the 1980s, while during the 1990s and 2000s the number of Koreans in the Philippines and Koreans in Vietnam have also grown significantly.^[79][80] In Central Asia, significant populations reside in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, as well as parts of Russia including the Far East. Known as Koryo-saram, many of these are descendants of Koreans who were forcely deported during the Soviet Union's Stalin regime.^[81] The Korean overseas community of Uzbekistan is the 5th largest outside Korea.^[4]

Koreans in the United Kingdom now form Western Europe's largest Korean community, albeit still relatively small; Koreans in Germany used to outnumber those in the UK until the late 1990s. In Australia, Korean Australians comprise a modest minority. Koreans have migrated^[where?] significantly since the 1960s.

Part-Korean populations

Pak Noja said that there were 5,747 Japanese-Korean couples in Korea at the end of 1941.^[82] Pak Cheil estimated there to be 70,000 to 80,000 "semi-Koreans" in Japan in the years immediately after the war.^[83] Many of them remained in Japan as Zainichi Koreans, maintaining their Korean heritage. However, due to assimilation, their numbers are much lower in recent times.

Kopinos are people of mixed Filipino and Korean descent. The 'Mixed Filipino Heritage Act of 2020' estimated there were around 30,000 Kopinos.^[84]

Lai Đại Hàn is a Vietnamese term referring to mixed children born to South Korean men and South Vietnamese women during the Vietnam War. These children were largely conceived as the result of wartime rape. No exact data is available on the number of Korean-Vietnamese because many of them choose to conceal their roots, but an estimate by a Korean scholar says the number of Lai Dai Han around the world is at least 5,000 to as many as 150,000.^[85][86][87]