National mental healthcare budget in South Korea 2020-2023

In 2023, the national budget for mental health care in South Korea amounted to around 450.4 billion South Korean won. This represents an increase of about 50 percent compared to the 2020 budget. The distribution of the budget across provinces varied, with some provinces generally spending more than others on mental health care. 

Mental healthcare facilities in South Korea

Much like the mental healthcare budget, the availability of related facilities also differed by province. Mental healthcare facilities tended to be clustered in more densely populated urban areas, with the capital city of Seoul offering 758 of such facilities in 2022. Overall, South Korea had 1.28 hospital beds available in psychiatric care per 1,000 inhabitants.

Mental healthcare budget differences between provinces

The province of Gyeonggi had access to a budget of around 100.9 billion won in 2023, taking up almost one fourth of the entire national budget that year. This was roughly equivalent to its population, with one quarter of South Korea’s total population living in that area. Compared to the availability of mental healthcare facilities, budgets did not cluster around metropolitan cities as much, with some of the largest cities such as Daegu receiving some of the smallest budgets.