As of 2023, there are approximately 77 to 80 million people in the world who speak Korean. Korean is the official language of South Korea and North Korea, mainly spoken on the Korean Peninsula. Among them, about 51 million people in South Korea speak Korean, and about 25 million people in North Korea use Korean. In addition, there are Korean language speakers in countries and regions such as China (especially in the Northeast region), the United States, Japan, Russia, Canada, etc. These are mainly descendants of the Korean ethnic group or Korean immigrants.
Due to the influence of the Korean Wave, the number of people learning Korean worldwide is also increasing, so the number of people speaking Korean may continue to grow.