One in seven people in Seoul spends more than two hours a day commuting, according to a recent report by the Seoul Institute.
The municipal government’s primary policy research body released its 2025 report, which analyzed commuting patterns in survey data collected in 2023. That survey found the average one-way trip to work or school in Seoul was 34.5 minutes.
The 2023 survey covered a sample of 20,000 households in Seoul, or 35,881 individual residents. Details such as exact age ranges or neighborhoods were not included.
A separate big data study cited in the report, using 2024 figures from KT’s mobile network, the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Statistics Korea, showed a near-identical average of 35.3 minutes during the morning rush hour.
Most residents travel far less than that, but the outliers are significant. Just 0.6 percent of respondents commute under 10 minutes one way. About 13.3 percent travel 10 to 20 minutes, 21.3 percent travel 20 to 30 minutes, and 25.6 percent travel 30 to 40 minutes.
At the other extreme, 13.5 percent commute at least one hour in a single direction, meaning over two hours of daily travel.
When the price of a home is measured in commute hours
Researchers point to housing costs as the biggest factor behind longer commutes. Since 2010, soaring real estate prices and rapid urban expansion have pushed more households to Seoul’s peripheral neighborhoods and into Gyeonggi Province, the surrounding suburban region.
The longest commutes are concentrated in the capital's outer districts, such as Yangcheon-gu, Gangdong-gu, Gangbuk-gu and Dobong-gu, which have fewer direct transport links to central Seoul.
The costs are not only measured in time. The Korea Transport Institute estimated in 2013 that each extra hour of commuting per day costs around 940,000 won ($678) per month in lost time and productivity. In 2017, the Gyeonggi Research Institute found that provincial residents were willing to pay an average of 330,000 won per month to reduce their commute by 30 minutes.
National statistics show a long-term shift. Between 2000 and 2020, the share of workers commuting less than 30 minutes declined, while those spending 60 to 120 minutes increased. Commutes of over two hours have fallen, likely due to expanded express bus routes and faster rail services.
Large suburban “new towns” have contributed to the problem by adding housing before transport links are complete, leaving early residents with long daily journeys. The recent introduction of the Great Train eXpress, or GTX, a high-speed suburban rail network, is expected to shorten some of these trips.
South Korea’s commutes remain among the longest in the developed world. A standardized OECD study in 2016 found the country’s average one-way commute was 58 minutes, compared with the OECD average of 28. Japan averaged 40 minutes, China 47, and the United States 21.
mjh@heraldcorp.com
