Place profile
Also known as: Gangwon Province
Gangwon State covers 16,876.3 km² (6,516 sq mi) of land and had a population of 1.5 million in 2025, about 89.4 people per km² (232 per sq mi). In more familiar terms, it is about the size of Hawaii.
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Calculated from the population and area above; their reference dates may differ.
The closest rung on the US reference ladder (Census Bureau land area); see the sources below.
The inverse of population density, from the same area and population figures.
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Gangwon State's full administrative territory in the northeast of the peninsula. The province became Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province (English name Gangwon State) on 2023-06-11 without any boundary change, so GADM's polygon, still labelled Gangwon-do, covers the same ground. Population is resident registration population (주민등록인구) at 2025-12-31 and area is the official administrative-area figure at the same date, both from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety annual report already used for Busan, Incheon, Daegu, Daejeon, Ulsan and Sejong — a different population series from the Statistics Korea register-based census (등록센서스) behind the South Korea and Seoul pages, though the two are usually close. The outline is GADM 4.1's Gangwon-do polygon, which measures about 16,760 km² against the official 16,876.33 km² (−0.7%). GADM is licensed for non-commercial use only; Atlas is not commercialised. See docs/island-data-sources.md.
Average administrative density does not describe population distribution in every neighborhood. Compare population definitions and reference dates alongside the numbers.
Place guide
Gangwon State covers 16,876.33 km² and had 1,508,500 registered residents at year-end 2025, about 89 people per km² — the lowest density of any Korean province. Mountains fill most of it, and its towns sit in river valleys and along the east coast.
Gangwon is the second-largest province by area after North Gyeongsang, yet it holds about 3% of South Korea's registered population. Its average density describes a province of mountains and valleys, not the density of Chuncheon, Wonju or Gangneung.
The 2023 change to a special self-governing province altered the name and some administrative powers, not the territory. Both the official figures and the outline describe the same eighteen cities and counties.
Questions people ask
Gangwon State covers 16,876.3 km², or 6,516 sq mi (reference date 2025-12-31). In US terms: ≈ the size of Hawaii.
1.5 million — 1,508,500 as of 2025-12-31. The scope of that count is set out under “Scope and definitions” on this page.
About 89.4 people per km² (232 per sq mi), derived from the area and population above, whose reference dates may differ. An administrative average does not describe how crowded any particular neighbourhood is.
Gangwon State's full administrative territory in the northeast of the peninsula. The province became Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province (English name Gangwon State) on 2023-06-11 without any boundary change, so GADM's polygon, still labelled Gangwon-do, covers the same ground. Population is resident registration population (주민등록인구) at 2025-12-31 and area is the official administrative-area figure at the same date, both from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety annual report already used for Busan, Incheon, Daegu, Daejeon, Ulsan and Sejong — a different population series from the Statistics Korea register-based census (등록센서스) behind the South Korea and Seoul pages, though the two are usually close. The outline is GADM 4.1's Gangwon-do polygon, which measures about 16,760 km² against the official 16,876.33 km² (−0.7%). GADM is licensed for non-commercial use only; Atlas is not commercialised. See docs/island-data-sources.md.
Also written or known as Gangwon Province. Every one of those names refers to the place measured on this page.
Outline source: GADM 4.1 · Free for academic and other non-commercial use; redistribution or commercial use requires permission
Read the methodology and data notes