Medical Tourism Clinics in Seoul by Specialty
Grouped by English name, the 1,491 medical tourism clinics on Seoul's 2015 list are led by plastic surgery with 329 (22.1%), followed by dentistry with 285.
Seoul Tourism and Medical Tourism Data sorted the 2015 list of clinics approved for medical tourism, released by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, into twelve groups using words in each clinic's English name. The four largest fields add up to 894, or 60.0% of the Seoul total.
- Largest field: plastic surgery
- 32922.1% of Seoul
- Dentistry
- 28519.1% of Seoul
- Four largest fields
- 89460.0% of Seoul
- Not identifiable from the name
- 29119.5% of Seoul
Contents
- Which are the most common medical tourism specialties in Seoul?
- How many clinics do the four largest medical tourism specialties in Seoul have?
- Which district leads each of the medical tourism specialties in Seoul?
- How concentrated are medical tourism specialties in Seoul in Gangnam-gu and Seocho-gu?
- How many clinics cannot be placed among the medical tourism specialties in Seoul?
- What should you keep in mind when reading the figures on medical tourism specialties in Seoul?
- Where do the figures on medical tourism specialties in Seoul come from, and how were they calculated?
- Frequently asked questions about medical tourism specialties in Seoul
- Related pages
- Sources
Which are the most common medical tourism specialties in Seoul?
Plastic surgery comes first. Of the 1,491 Seoul clinics on the 2015 list, 329 (22.1%) have a word for this field in their name. Next come dentistry with 285, Korean medicine with 160 and dermatology with 120.
| Specialty | Clinics | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Plastic surgery | 329 | 22.1% |
| Dentistry | 285 | 19.1% |
| Korean medicine | 160 | 10.7% |
| Hospitals and medical centres (no specialty in the name) | 143 | 9.6% |
| Dermatology | 120 | 8.0% |
| Ophthalmology | 50 | 3.4% |
| Obstetrics and gynaecology | 41 | 2.7% |
| Urology | 26 | 1.7% |
| Ear, nose and throat | 18 | 1.2% |
| Internal medicine | 15 | 1.0% |
| Orthopaedics | 13 | 0.9% |
| Not identifiable from the name | 291 | 19.5% |
| Seoul total | 1,491 | 100.0% |
Clinics whose names show a specialty total 1,057 (70.9%) across ten fields. The rest are 143 listed only as a hospital or medical centre with no specialty, and 291 whose field cannot be told from the name.
How many clinics do the four largest medical tourism specialties in Seoul have?
The four fields together have 894, which is 60.0% of the city. The largest, plastic surgery, has 2.7 times as many clinics as the fourth, dermatology (329 ÷ 120).
| Group | Clinics | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Plastic surgery | 329 | 22.1% |
| Dentistry | 285 | 19.1% |
| Korean medicine | 160 | 10.7% |
| Dermatology | 120 | 8.0% |
| The four fields together | 894 | 60.0% |
| The other 6 named fields | 163 | 10.9% |
| Hospitals and medical centres (no specialty in the name) | 143 | 9.6% |
| Not identifiable from the name | 291 | 19.5% |
The other 6 named fields add up to 163. The largest of them, ophthalmology, has 50, less than half of the fourth field.
Which district leads each of the medical tourism specialties in Seoul?
Gangnam-gu has the most clinics, or ties for the most, in 11 of the 11 groups built from the names. In plastic surgery, 263 of the 329 Seoul clinics (79.9%) are in Gangnam-gu.
| Specialty | Leading district | In that district | Seoul | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plastic surgery | Gangnam-gu | 263 | 329 | 79.9% |
| Dentistry | Gangnam-gu | 107 | 285 | 37.5% |
| Korean medicine | Gangnam-gu | 50 | 160 | 31.3% |
| Dermatology | Gangnam-gu | 54 | 120 | 45.0% |
| Ophthalmology | Gangnam-gu | 27 | 50 | 54.0% |
| Obstetrics and gynaecology | Gangnam-gu | 17 | 41 | 41.5% |
| Urology | Gangnam-gu | 12 | 26 | 46.2% |
| Ear, nose and throat | Gangnam-gu | 11 | 18 | 61.1% |
| Internal medicine | Gangnam-gu | 5 | 15 | 33.3% |
| Orthopaedics | Gangseo-gu and Gangnam-gu | 3 | 13 | 23.1% |
| Hospitals and medical centres (no specialty in the name) | Gangnam-gu | 25 | 143 | 17.5% |
Counts and ranks for all 25 districts are in Medical Tourism Clinics in Seoul. Across all fields, Gangnam-gu has 740, or 49.6% of Seoul.
How concentrated are medical tourism specialties in Seoul in Gangnam-gu and Seocho-gu?
It depends on the field. Gangnam-gu and Seocho-gu hold 309 of the plastic surgery clinics (93.9%), and 78 of the Korean medicine clinics (48.8%).
| Specialty | Gangnam-gu | Seocho-gu | The other 23 districts | Seoul |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plastic surgery | 263 | 46 | 20 | 329 |
| Dentistry | 107 | 43 | 135 | 285 |
| Korean medicine | 50 | 28 | 82 | 160 |
| Dermatology | 54 | 14 | 52 | 120 |
Dentistry has 135 clinics in the other 23 districts, the most outside the two districts among the four fields. The fields common in each neighbourhood of Gangnam-gu are in Medical Tourism Clinics in Gangnam.
How many clinics cannot be placed among the medical tourism specialties in Seoul?
291, or 19.5% of the Seoul total. These are clinics with no word for a specialty in their name. It does not mean they have no specialty.
The "hospitals and medical centres" group of 143 covers institutions whose names say only Hospital or Medical Center. Hospitals that run several departments fall here. Gangnam-gu has 25 of them (17.5%), a lower share than in the other fields.
What should you keep in mind when reading the figures on medical tourism specialties in Seoul?
The source has no column for medical specialty. Seoul Tourism and Medical Tourism Data grouped clinics by words in their English names (Plastic, Dental, Dermatology and so on), counting each clinic once under the first field that matches. The 291 clinics whose names show no specialty are listed as "not identifiable from the name". These are not statistics on the departments a clinic actually runs.
The list is a single snapshot from 2015 and has not been updated since. Clinics that have closed or moved, and those registered later, are not reflected. It cannot be used to confirm whether a clinic is registered today.
Where do the figures on medical tourism specialties in Seoul come from, and how were they calculated?
The figures are Seoul Tourism and Medical Tourism Data's own counts, by district and neighbourhood, of the 1,494 rows in "Seoul: medical institutions approved for medical tourism, English list (2015)" on the Seoul Open Data Plaza. Only the 1,491 rows with a Seoul address are counted; 2 rows with a Gyeonggi address and 1 row with no address are left out. The list comes from the Foreign Patient Attraction Information System and was released by the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Public Health Policy Division.
Names were tested in this order: plastic surgery, dermatology, dentistry, Korean medicine, ophthalmology, obstetrics and gynaecology, urology, ear, nose and throat, orthopaedics, internal medicine, then hospitals and medical centres. A clinic goes into the first field that matches, so a name with two specialties is counted only under the earlier one. Shares use the Seoul total of 1,491 as the denominator.
Frequently asked questions about medical tourism specialties in Seoul
How many plastic surgery clinics are among the medical tourism clinics in Seoul?
329 clinics on the 2015 list have a word for plastic surgery in their name. That is 22.1% of the 1,491 in Seoul.
How many dental and Korean medicine clinics are there?
285 dental clinics and 160 Korean medicine clinics and hospitals. Both are counted from words in the English names.
Does the source list each clinic's specialty?
No. The list gives only the English name, the district and the neighbourhood. The fields are an editorial grouping that Seoul Tourism and Medical Tourism Data made from the names.
How is a clinic with several departments counted?
Each clinic is counted once. If a name shows several specialties, it goes into the first matching field in a fixed order.
Which district has the most plastic surgery clinics?
Gangnam-gu. It has 263 of the 329 in Seoul (79.9%), and Seocho-gu has 46.
Does Seoul Tourism and Medical Tourism Data list clinic names by specialty?
No. Seoul Tourism and Medical Tourism Data shows only the number of clinics in each field and does not print the names of individual clinics.
Sources
- Seoul: medical institutions approved for medical tourism, English list (2015) Seoul Metropolitan Government (Public Health Policy Division), Seoul Open Data Plaza · 21 Jan 2016 · one-off release, from the Foreign Patient Attraction Information System, KOGL Type 1
- Korea Open Government License, Type 1: attribution (in Korean) Korea Open Government License (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) · attribution required, commercial use and changes allowed
Every address was opened and checked on 9 Oct 2026. The source files can be downloaded from the Seoul Open Data Plaza.