What Percentage of Koreans Have Had Plastic Surgery?
Key takeaways
- About 10% of Korean adults have had plastic surgery. Gallup Korea's 2020 national survey found 18% of women and 2% of men had had a surgical procedure.
- Women in their 30s have the highest rate. 31% of women aged 30 to 39 reported plastic surgery in 2020, almost double the 16% recorded in 2015.
- Non-surgical procedures are far more common. A 2026 Embrain Trendmonitor survey found 55.0% of Koreans aged 13 to 69 had had a non-surgical cosmetic procedure such as Botox, filler or laser.
- Korea ranks 2nd per capita, not 1st. On ISAPS 2025 data and UN population estimates, South Korea had about 38.1 procedures per 1,000 people, second only to Greece (41.8), by our calculation.
- Eyelid surgery leads by a wide margin. An estimated 203,018 eyelid procedures were performed in 2025, 24.1% of all cosmetic surgeries in Korea.
- Survey figures differ because definitions differ. Results range from 10% to over 50% depending on whether non-surgical treatments, teenagers or online panels are included.
About 1 in 10 Korean adults (10%) say they have had plastic surgery, according to Gallup Korea’s most recent national survey. That is 18% of women and 2% of men. The highest rate is among women in their 30s, at 31%. When non-surgical treatments such as Botox, filler and laser are counted, the numbers rise sharply: a 2026 survey found that 55% of Koreans aged 13 to 69 have had a non-surgical cosmetic procedure.
This page brings together every national survey we could find, the latest procedure data from the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS), and where the figures widely repeated online actually come from. Each number links to its original source.
Key numbers at a glance
| Statistic | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Korean adults who have had plastic surgery | 10% | Gallup Korea, 2020 |
| Korean women who have had plastic surgery | 18% | Gallup Korea, 2020 |
| Korean men who have had plastic surgery | 2% | Gallup Korea, 2020 |
| Women in their 30s | 31% | Gallup Korea, 2020 |
| Women aged 19 to 29 | 25% | Gallup Korea, 2020 |
| Koreans aged 13 to 69 who have had cosmetic surgery | 25.2% | Embrain Trendmonitor, 2026 |
| Koreans aged 13 to 69 who have had a non-surgical cosmetic procedure | 55.0% | Embrain Trendmonitor, 2026 |
| Aesthetic procedures performed by plastic surgeons in South Korea | 1,966,442 (5th in the world) | ISAPS Global Survey 2025 |
| Procedures per 1,000 people in South Korea | 38.1 (2nd of 51 countries in the ISAPS survey) | Our calculation from ISAPS 2025 and UN population data |
| Most common cosmetic surgery in Korea | Eyelid surgery (203,018 procedures) | ISAPS 2025 |
How to cite this page
You are welcome to use any figure on this page. Please link to this page and, where possible, to the original source listed beside each number.
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Plastic surgery rates in Korea by gender and age
Gallup Korea’s 2020 survey is the most reliable national measure. It interviewed 1,500 adults aged 19 and over face to face, using a random sample, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 points. Respondents were asked one question: “Have you ever had plastic surgery?”
| Age group | Women | Men |
|---|---|---|
| 19 to 29 | 25% | 2% |
| 30 to 39 | 31% | 4% |
| 40 to 49 | 18% | 1% |
| 50 to 59 | 13% | 3% |
| 60 and over | 11% | 1% |
| All ages | 18% | 2% |
Source: Gallup Korea, “Perceptions of appearance and plastic surgery”, survey of 7 to 20 February 2020, page 7.
Women in their 20s and 30s
Women in their 30s now have the highest rate: 31% in 2020, almost double the 16% recorded in 2015. For women aged 19 to 29 the figure was 25% in 2020, compared with 31% in 2015.
That apparent fall should not be read as a decline. Each female age group in the survey contains only about 120 people, so the margin of error for these subgroups is roughly plus or minus 9 points. A more useful reading is that the generation that reported high rates in their 20s in 2015 has moved into its 30s.
Interest remains high among young women who have not had surgery. Of women aged 19 to 29 with no surgery history, 38% said they had considered it (Gallup Korea, 2020, page 9).
Korean men and plastic surgery
Very few Korean men report having had plastic surgery: 2% in 2020, up from 0.1% in 1994. A separate government-approved survey by the National Youth Policy Institute found a similar 2.1% among men aged 18 to 34 in 2020, even though its definition included Botox (NYPI via KOSIS).
Non-surgical treatments are a different story. A Korean Women’s Development Institute survey found that 16.6% of men aged 15 to 64 had had a cosmetic procedure or surgery once non-surgical treatments were included.
How plastic surgery in Korea has changed since 1994
Gallup Korea has asked the same question in four surveys over 26 years, which makes it the only consistent long-term series.
| Survey year | All adults | Women | Men | Women aged 19 to 29 | Women in their 30s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | 2% | 4% | 0.1% | 5% | 3% |
| 2004 | 5% | 9% | 1% | 13% | 12% |
| 2015 | 7% | 14% | 1% | 31% | 16% |
| 2020 | 10% | 18% | 2% | 25% | 31% |
Source: Gallup Korea 2020 report, page 7. Each survey interviewed about 1,500 adults.
The overall rate has risen five-fold since 1994. Among women it has more than quadrupled. Gallup Korea has not published a newer survey on this question since 2020.
Why do surveys give such different answers?
Published figures for Korea range from 10% to over 50%. Most of the difference comes from what each survey counts, who it asks, and how.
| Survey | Year | Who was asked | What counted | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gallup Korea | 2020 | 1,500 adults aged 19+, face to face | Plastic surgery, as each respondent understood it | 10% |
| National Youth Policy Institute | 2020 | 3,500 people aged 18 to 34, home interviews | Surgery including Botox | 11.7% (women 22.5%, men 2.1%) |
| Korean Women’s Development Institute | 2019 sample | 2,585 people aged 15 to 64 | Any cosmetic surgery or procedure | 27.7% (women 39.4%, men 16.6%) |
| Embrain Trendmonitor | 2026 | 1,200 people aged 13 to 69 | Cosmetic surgery or non-surgical procedures | 25.2% surgery; 55.0% procedures |
Three things explain the gap:
- Surgery vs procedures. Gallup notes that respondents probably did not count non-incision treatments such as laser, Botox or mole removal. Surveys that include them produce much higher figures.
- Age range. Including teenagers or capping the age at 34 or 64 changes the result.
- Method. Gallup uses face-to-face interviews with a random sample. Commercial surveys often use online panels and do not always publish their method.
These surveys should not be lined up as a trend. Only Gallup’s series compares like with like over time.
Plastic surgery among Korean teenagers
It is less common than many articles suggest. The National Youth Policy Institute’s official survey found that 3.0% to 3.7% of Korean middle and high school students had had plastic surgery between 2017 and 2019, using a definition that includes Botox. Among university and graduate students, the rate was 8.4% in 2020 (NYPI via KOSIS).
Stories about double eyelid surgery as a high school “graduation gift” are widely shared, but we found no survey that measures how common this is.
Does South Korea have the highest rate of plastic surgery per capita?
Not clearly, on the latest data. Based on ISAPS 2025 procedure totals and UN population estimates, South Korea had about 38 aesthetic procedures per 1,000 people in 2025. That is the second highest rate of the 51 countries and territories in the survey, after Greece at about 42 per 1,000. ISAPS itself does not publish a per-capita ranking; the figures below are our calculation.
| Rank | Country or territory | Aesthetic procedures, 2025 | Population, mid-2025 | Procedures per 1,000 people |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greece | 415,120 | 9,938,844 | 41.8 |
| 2 | South Korea | 1,966,442 | 51,667,029 | 38.1 |
| 3 | Lebanon | 168,221 | 5,849,421 | 28.8 |
| 4 | Italy | 1,477,556 | 59,146,260 | 25.0 |
| 5 | Lithuania | 69,174 | 2,830,144 | 24.4 |
| 6 | Taiwan | 535,869 | 23,112,793 | 23.2 |
| 7 | Belgium | 236,678 | 11,758,603 | 20.1 |
| 8 | Denmark | 116,100 | 6,002,507 | 19.3 |
| 10 | Japan | 2,047,901 | 123,103,479 | 16.6 |
| 11 | United States | 5,461,476 | 347,275,807 | 15.7 |
| 12 | Brazil | 3,216,665 | 212,812,405 | 15.1 |
| China | 2,844,500 | 1,416,096,094 | 2.0 |
Sources: procedures from the ISAPS International Survey 2025; population from the UN World Population Prospects 2024 (medium variant, 1 July 2025). Per-1,000 figures and ranks are our calculation across all 51 locations in the survey; Germany ranks 9th (18.1).
Read these figures with three caveats:
- Procedures are not people. One patient can have several procedures, so this rate cannot be turned into a percentage of the population.
- Foreign patients are included. South Korea treated 2,011,822 foreign patients in 2025, and 11.2% of them came for plastic surgery (Korea Ministry of Health and Welfare, 2026). Korean plastic surgeons estimated that on average 24% of their patients came from abroad.
- Only plastic surgeons are counted. ISAPS does not include treatments by dermatologists or other aesthetic clinics, which carry out a large share of Korea’s skin and injectable treatments.
Where the “highest per capita” claim comes from
The claim dates from Economist charts built on ISAPS data for 2010 and 2011, when South Korea had about 16 and 13 procedures per 1,000 people. ISAPS data for 2014 put the figure at about 19 per 1,000. South Korea then did not appear in ISAPS’s published country procedure rankings between the 2015 and 2025 surveys; the 2025 survey, published in September 2026, is the first in years to report its procedure numbers again. Any claim that “ISAPS 2021” or “ISAPS 2023” ranked Korea first per capita has no basis in those reports.
What are the most common plastic surgery procedures in Korea?
Eyelid surgery is by far the most common cosmetic surgical procedure in South Korea, accounting for 24.1% of all surgical procedures in 2025. Botulinum toxin (Botox) is the most common non-surgical treatment.
| Rank | Surgical procedure | Number (share) | Non-surgical procedure | Number (share) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eyelid surgery | 203,018 (24.1%) | Botulinum toxin | 532,397 (47.4%) |
| 2 | Facial fat grafting | 96,595 (11.4%) | Hyaluronic acid filler | 374,026 (33.3%) |
| 3 | Brow lift | 77,782 (9.2%) | Poly-L-lactic acid | 47,736 (4.3%) |
| 4 | Rhinoplasty | 74,974 (8.9%) | Non-surgical skin tightening | 47,736 (4.3%) |
| 5 | Liposuction | 49,421 (5.9%) | Non-surgical fat reduction | 35,942 (3.2%) |
Source: ISAPS International Survey 2025, page 20. Includes procedures on foreign patients.
What Koreans would choose next follows the same pattern. Among adults who had considered surgery but not had it, 51% named their eyes and 29% their nose. Women most often named their eyes (59%), and men most often named their nose (50%) (Gallup Korea, 2020, page 8). For costs and recovery, see our guides to double eyelid surgery in Korea and rhinoplasty materials in Korea.
Why is plastic surgery so common in South Korea?
Survey data point to wide social acceptance and an unusually large supply of clinics.
- Acceptance: 67% of Korean adults say it is acceptable to have plastic surgery to help get a job or get married, including 78% to 80% of women aged 19 to 49 (Gallup Korea, 2020, page 6).
- Appearance as a skill: 79.3% of Koreans aged 13 to 69 agree that managing your appearance is a form of competitiveness, and 84.4% say surgery or procedures to fix a perceived flaw are fine (Embrain Trendmonitor, 2026).
- Self-satisfaction: young Koreans who had cosmetic surgery most often said they did it for their own satisfaction (64.7%) rather than for a job or a partner (NYPI, 2020).
- Clinic density: Seoul’s Gangnam district alone had 452 plastic surgery clinics in the first half of 2025, and 79% of them made no national health insurance claims, meaning they work almost entirely on cosmetic cases (HIRA data via Medipharm Health, 2025). Nationwide, Korea had 1,008 plastic surgery clinics in June 2020, up 30.9% from 2010 (HIRA data via Medigate News, 2020).
Interestingly, Koreans now place less weight on looks than they used to. The share saying appearance is “very important” in life fell from 42% in 1994 to 20% in 2020, while the share confident in their own appearance rose from 24% to 41% (Gallup Korea, 2020, pages 3 and 4).
Common myths about plastic surgery in Korea
| Often quoted | What the data shows |
|---|---|
| “1 in 3 young Korean women has had plastic surgery” | This comes from Gallup Korea’s 2015 survey (31% of women aged 19 to 29). In 2020 the figure for that age group was 25%. Women in their 30s were at 31%. |
| “Half of women in their 20s in Seoul have had surgery” | No national survey supports this. Primary figures for women in their 20s are 25% for surgery (Gallup Korea, 2020) and about 38% for any cosmetic procedure in a 330-person online panel (Seo et al., 2019). |
| “1 in 5 Korean women has had plastic surgery” | Roughly consistent with Gallup’s 18% for all women in 2020. It originally appeared in a 2012 Economist chart. |
| “Korea has the world’s highest plastic surgery rate per capita (ISAPS)” | ISAPS has never published a per-capita ranking. On 2025 data Korea ranks second, after Greece, by our calculation. |
| “1 in 4 of the world’s cosmetic surgeries happens in Korea” | False. South Korea accounted for 5.6% of all aesthetic procedures and 4.7% of surgical procedures worldwide in 2025 (ISAPS). |
| “Korea performs about 1 million procedures a year” | Outdated. ISAPS estimated 1,966,442 procedures in 2025, including those on foreign patients. |
Thinking about plastic surgery in Korea?
If you are reading these numbers because you are considering a procedure, a few practical points:
- Most foreign patients come for skin, not surgery. In 2025, 62.9% of Korea’s foreign patients were treated in dermatology and 11.2% in plastic surgery (MOHW, 2026). See aesthetic dermatology options in Korea.
- The VAT refund for foreigners has ended. Korea’s VAT refund for foreigners’ cosmetic procedures expired on 31 December 2025, so build the full price into your budget.
- Cheap is not always cheaper. Revision surgery costs more than getting it right the first time. Read the hidden cost of cheap rhinoplasty in Korea and revision rhinoplasty in Korea.
- Where clinics are: most are concentrated in Gangnam. Compare options on our South Korea destination page.
For wider context, including foreign patient numbers by nationality, see our South Korea medical tourism statistics.
Have questions about planning a procedure in Korea? Message the BeautsGO team on WhatsApp at +82 10 9232 9888 or visit BeautsGO.
Methodology and sources
- Survey figures come from published reports by Gallup Korea, the National Youth Policy Institute (an official statistic published on KOSIS), the Korean Women’s Development Institute and Embrain Trendmonitor. We report each survey’s own age range and definition.
- ISAPS figures are estimates projected from a survey of about 2,900 plastic surgeons worldwide. They count procedures, not people, and cover only plastic surgeons.
- Per-capita rates are our calculation: ISAPS 2025 total procedures divided by UN World Population Prospects 2024 estimates for 1 July 2025.
- Small subgroups: Gallup’s age-by-gender groups contain about 120 people each, so differences of a few points between them are not meaningful.
Sources
- Gallup Korea, 2015 appearance and plastic surgery survey. gallup.co.kr
- Embrain Trendmonitor, survey on cosmetic procedures and plastic surgery, February 2026. trendmonitor.co.kr
- National Youth Policy Institute survey (Statistics Korea approval no. 402004), published on KOSIS. kosis.kr
- Korean Women’s Development Institute, issue paper published 31 July 2020 (survey of 2,585 people aged 15 to 64). kwdi.re.kr
- ISAPS International Survey on Aesthetic/Cosmetic Procedures 2025. isaps.org
- United Nations, World Population Prospects 2024. population.un.org
- Korea Ministry of Health and Welfare, foreign patient statistics, April 2026. mohw.go.kr
- Seo, Chung and Kim, survey of 330 Korean women in their 20s, Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 2019;43:531-538. PMC
- HIRA data on Gangnam plastic surgery clinics, via Medipharm Health, October 2025. medipharmhealth.co.kr
- HIRA data on plastic surgery clinics nationwide, via Medigate News, October 2020. medigatenews.com
- ISAPS 2014 global statistics release, July 2015. isaps.org
Frequently asked questions
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