Drunk driving in Korea appears to have plummeted since the early 2010s, with government data showing Sunday that the 2023 figure has dropped to just one-sixth of the level reported 10 years earlier
The “2025 Alcohol Statistics Report” by the Ministry of Health and Welfare showed that 2.1 percent of adults here had driven after drinking at least once in 2023, but this was one-sixth the level of 2013, when it was 12.6 percent.
The rate has been on a downward trend since peaking at 17.1 percent in 2011, falling below the 10 percent mark for the first time in 2016.
The measure is based on the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s annual survey of roughly 10,000 adults. It reflects the proportion of people who drove a car or motorcycle within the past year after consuming any amount of alcohol.
Officials say the data reflects a cultural shift in which drunk driving is increasingly socially unaccpetable, alongside strengthened law enforcement and public education efforts.
By gender, 2023 rates were 2.6 percent for men and 0.9 percent for women.
Older drivers were more likely to drive under the influence, with 4.1 percent of those aged 70 and above admiting that they had. This was followed by those in their 50s (3.7 percent), 60s (3.1 percent), 40s (2.3 percent), 30s (1.1 percent) and the under-30s (0.8 percent).
Exposure to drunk driving as a passenger has also declined sharply. The share of adults who had ridden in a vehicle driven by someone who had consumed alcohol fell from 14.9 percent in 2013 to 3.3 percent in 2023.
Men reported a 3.5 percent rate and women 3.1 percent. Unlike DUI experience, passengers in their 50s recorded the highest exposure at 4.9 percent.
With the decline in drinking and driving, the share of all traffic accidents that were alcohol-related has fallen, accounting for 6.6 percent of all traffic accidents in 2023, down from 12.3 percent a decade earlier.
jychoi@heraldcorp.com
