The record in plain text — overall score, categories, strengths and risks, momentum, resilience, strategic position, and diagnostics.
Strongest on Quality of Life (94/100) — sharpest risk, innovation weakness.
| Category | Score | Key driver |
|---|---|---|
| Economy | 75/100 | Labour Productivity |
| Governance | 74/100 | Ease of Resolving Disputes |
| Quality of Life | 94/100 | Tertiary Enrolment (Gross) |
| Innovation | 79/100 | Patent Applications |
| Stability | 79/100 | Violence & Safety |
Derived — composites of sourced indicators. Full audit trail in Data Provenance below.
| Signal | Value | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| National Momentum | −3 | now 70, versus 73 three years ago, across 5 categories |
| Resilience | 65/100 | Pandemic 82 · Banking Crisis 68 · War / Conflict 60 · Natural Disaster 51 |
| Strategic Position | 62/100 | Demographics 53 · Resources 20 · Stability 79 · Education 96 · Technology 79 · Geopolitics 43 |
South Korea scores 80 (strong) overall on NationsHelm's index. Momentum: down 3 points versus three years ago (now 70). Its strongest area is Quality of Life (94/100). The risk drawing attention: Innovation weakness.
All 192 tracked indicators — 110 sourced, 82 derived — each with its exact source, series code, and refresh cadence. The complete source-by-source catalog is on the methodology page.
Full catalog →Per-indicator sources are always public on the methodology page — Analyst assembles the complete ledger in context.
South Korea scores 80 out of 100 overall on NationsHelm's index (strong) — the unweighted mean of its sourced category scores. Its strongest area is Quality of Life (94/100) and its weakest is Governance (74/100).
South Korea's Stability score is 79 out of 100 (strong), blended from World Bank governance indicators, V-Dem and UCDP conflict data.
South Korea's Economy score is 75 out of 100 (strong), derived from World Bank, IMF and ILO indicators.
South Korea's Quality of Life score is 94 out of 100 (strong), covering safety, healthcare, education, basic living conditions, environment and living conditions context from sourced indicators.
South Korea's Governance score is 74 out of 100 (strong), from World Bank governance indicators and V-Dem democracy data.
South Korea's Innovation score is 79 out of 100 (strong), from World Bank connectivity and business indicators, WIPO patent data and the Oxford Insights Government AI Readiness Index.
On NationsHelm's momentum read, South Korea is down 3 points versus three years ago — 70 now, from 73 — across the 5 categories with time-series coverage.
South Korea's defining asset is patent applications, while its sharpest risk is innovation weakness — new Business Rate 3.51 per 1k — the category's weakest input (17/100).
South Korea's Strategic Position score is 62 out of 100 (moderate), weighing demographics, resources, stability, education, technology and geopolitics — each component sourced or derived, with unsourced components dropped rather than counted as zero.
On NationsHelm's Opportunity Index, South Korea scores 77 out of 100 for Invest In — one of its three vectors, alongside Start a Business and Emigrate To, with a Resilience score of 65/100. Every input is sourced, so treat it as a starting map, not advice.