Austria vs. South Korea
Austria and South Korea side by side on 16 indicators: GDP, growth, inflation, debt, unemployment, life expectancy, CO₂ emissions and more.
Each indicator uses the most recent year with figures for nearly every country, so the two are always compared like for like. The year sits beside every figure.
GDP (nominal)2025
South Korea leads by 3.2×
GDP per person2025
Austria leads by 1.7×
Population2025
South Korea leads by 5.6×
At a glance
- South Korea has the larger economy: $1.87tn against $580bn, 3.2× the size.
- Per person it reverses: Austria produces $63,161 per head against $36,227.
- South Korea grew faster in 2025 (+1.0% against +0.6%).
- Interest on government debt takes a larger share of public spending in South Korea: 4.6% against 2.7%.
- Austria emits less CO₂ per person: 6.3 t against 11.4 t.
- People in South Korea live longer: 83.6 yrs against 82.0 yrs.
Real GDP, indexed
2014 = 100. Built from IMF real growth rates, so it shows the shape of each economy's growth, not its size.
Economy
People
Environment
All indicators
| Indicator | Year | Austria | South Korea | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GDP (nominal) | 2025 | $580bn | $1.87tn | 3.2× |
| GDP per person | 2025 | $63,161 | $36,227 | 1.7× |
| Real GDP growth | 2025 | +0.6% | +1.0% | 0.4 pp |
| Inflation (consumer prices) | 2025 | 3.6% | 2.1% | 1.5 pp |
| Unemployment (ILO) | 2025 | 5.6% | 2.7% | 2.9 pp |
| Government debt, % of GDP | 2025 | 80.5% | 52.3% | 28.2 pp |
| Debt interest, % of government spending | 2024 | 2.7% | 4.6% | 1.9 pp |
| Debt interest, % of government revenue | 2024 | 2.9% | 4.7% | 1.8 pp |
| Population | 2025 | 9.2m | 51.7m | 5.6× |
| Life expectancy | 2024 | 82.0 | 83.6 | 1.6 yrs |
| Human Development Index | 2023 | 0.930 | 0.937 | 0.007 |
| Urban population | 2025 | 69.7% | 81.2% | 11.5 pp |
| Internet use | 2024 | 94.9% | 97.9% | 3.0 pp |
| CO₂ per person | 2024 | 6.3 t | 11.4 t | 1.8× |
| Land area | 2024 | 82,520 km² | 97,600 km² | 1.2× |
| Population density | 2025 | 111/km² | 530/km² | 4.8× |
Methodology
Each indicator shows the same year for every country: the latest year, up to last year, for which at least 24 of the 30 countries have figures. That keeps comparisons like for like — a country whose statistics office publishes early is never set against another country's older number. The year is shown beside every figure.
GDP, GDP per person, real growth, inflation, government debt and population come from the IMF World Economic Outlook, which is revised each April and October; figures for the most recent year are partly IMF estimates. Interest on government debt is the share of general government spending that goes on interest, calculated from two series in the IMF's Public Finances in Modern History — interest paid and total spending, each as a percentage of GDP — for the same country and year; a second row sets the same interest against government revenue, the ratio rating agencies use, which is higher wherever borrowing pays for part of spending. Both count interest only: repaying the debt itself is financing rather than spending, and most of it is refinanced with new borrowing. The IMF series has no figure for Singapore. Unemployment is the World Bank's ILO-modelled rate, which applies one definition to every country and can therefore differ from the rate a national statistics office publishes. Life expectancy, urban population, internet use, land area and CO₂ emissions per person (excluding land use) come from the World Bank's World Development Indicators. The Human Development Index is published by the UN Development Programme and taken from Our World in Data.
Money figures are in current US dollars at market exchange rates, not adjusted for purchasing power. Population density is population divided by land area. The real GDP chart compounds the IMF's annual real growth rates from a base year set to 100, so it shows how each economy has grown rather than how large it is.
Where one direction is clearly better, the stronger of the two figures carries a dot. Inflation never does: very low inflation is not simply better than moderate inflation, and a page that marked it as a win would be making an argument the numbers do not support.
The figures are checked against their sources every week and the pages rebuild whenever one of them changes, which in practice means a handful of times a year. The World Bank and Our World in Data series are published under CC BY 4.0; the IMF figures are used under the IMF's terms of use.
Sources
Cite this as: News Unlimited, “Country comparison: economy, people and environment”.