South Korea's Golf Population Falls by 430,000 to Approx. 5.81 Million Over 2 Years

South Korea's domestic golf population has decreased by about 7% over the past two years.

According to the 2025 Korea Golf Index survey released by the Korea Golf Association (KGA) on November 2, golf participants in South Korea totaled approximately 5.81 million in 2025, accounting for 15.9% of the total adult population.

Compared to approximately 6.24 million (16.9%) in 2023, this represents a decrease of 430,000 (7.0%), with the proportion of the total population also falling by 1.0 percentage points.

While the population with golf experience increased, potential non-experienced individuals with future intentions to play golf dropped significantly.

Those with golf experience rose by 880,000 from approximately 6.78 million (18.3%) in 2023 to approximately 7.66 million (21.0%) in 2025. However, potential non-experienced individuals who intend to play golf in the future declined by 1.98 million over the same period, dropping from approximately 10.01 million (27.1%) to 8.02 million (22.0%).

The association explained, "The cessation of activities by existing golfers and the slowing influx of new golfers occurred simultaneously."

Golf in South Korea remains centered heavily around field rounds.

In 2025, 85.9% of golf participants (approximately 4.99 million people) essentially enjoyed field rounds at golf courses.

However, this is a 3.0 percentage point decrease from 88.9% in 2023.

Among new participants who started golf in 2025, more than half, or 52.4%, were found to have entered the sport through driving ranges (29.1%) and indoor screen golf facilities (23.3%).

Changes were also observed in the purposes for enjoying golf.

Responses indicating that golf is enjoyed for the purpose of a hobby dropped by 14.3 percentage points from 73.3% in 2023 to 59.0% in 2025, while the purpose of stress relief decreased by 20.4 percentage points from 52.3% to 31.9%.

On the other hand, golf activities driven by business necessities increased by 2.3 percentage points from 16.7% to 19.0%.

The purpose of socializing still maintained a high proportion at 63.3%.

The social networking function of golf also stood out among round companions.

The proportion of rounds played with business associates increased by 5.4 percentage points from 6.1% in 2023 to 11.5% in 2025.

The proportion of rounds with club members also grew from 5.9% to 9.4%.

In golf consumption, pragmatic utilization patterns aimed at cutting costs became prominent.

The proportion of weekday rounds increased by 14.1 percentage points from 48.1% in 2023 to 62.2% in 2025.

In particular, weekday morning rounds rose from 21.8% to 31.1%, and weekday early-morning rounds grew from 6.7% to 11.6%, respectively.

This is interpreted as an increase in the number of golfers choosing weekdays to avoid weekend rounds, which carry a relatively heavier cost burden.

There were still many golfers enjoying overseas golf.

Among those with overseas golf experience, 63.5% continued to enjoy golf abroad in 2025.

This is a 2.3 percentage point decrease compared to 2023 (65.8%).

The main destination countries were Thailand (41.8%) and the Philippines (32.8%), followed by Japan (32.4%) and China (18.1%).

Notably, the proportion of visits to Japan increased by 6.3 percentage points from 26.1% in 2023, and visits to China also rose by 3.8 percentage points.

This survey was conducted in two phases in June and October, sampling 10,000 adults aged 20 to 60 nationwide.

(Photo provided by the Korea Golf Association, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.