▲2016~2022(E) Data Industry Market Size Summary (Unit: 100 million won)

Average annual growth rate of 11.9% for the past 3 years, steady growth

The 2022 data market size (E) was estimated to be KRW 25.527 trillion, with 198,000 data professionals.

The Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Lee Jong-ho) and the Korea Data Industry Promotion Agency (President Yoon Hye-jung, hereinafter referred to as 'K-DATA') announced the results of the '2022 Data Industry Status Survey', a nationally approved statistical survey (No. 127004) that investigates the domestic data industry market size, human resources status, etc., on April 18.

The survey was conducted based on the survey responses from 1,375 samples out of 8,940 data industry businesses and 1,200 samples out of 13,179 general industry businesses.

First, in terms of the data industry market size, the confirmed figure for 2021 was KRW 22.9 trillion, up 14.5% (KRW ↑ 2.9 trillion) from KRW 20.0 trillion in 2020, and the projected figure for 2022 (E) was surveyed to be KRW 25.1 trillion. The data industry market size has shown steady growth, with an average annual growth rate of 11.9% over the past three years (2020-2022E).

In terms of the growth rate by industry based on the confirmed market size in 2021, the data processing and management solution development and supply sector (KRW 2.5 trillion in 2020 → KRW 3.0 trillion in 2021) showed the highest growth rate at 18.7%, followed by the data sales and provision service sector (↑16.3%, KRW 9.8 trillion in 2020 → KRW 11.4 trillion in 2021) and the data construction and consulting service sector (↑10.7%, KRW 7.7 trillion in 2020 → KRW 8.5 trillion in 2021).

In terms of the 2022 workforce status, the total workforce in the data industry was 406,457, of which 134,310 were data workers. This figure is an increase of about 12,000 people compared to the previous year (both the total workforce and data workers increased by 12,000 people), and the data industry workforce is showing a trend of increasing mainly in data workers.

In addition, the number of data workers in all industries in Korea in 2022 was 197,802 (up 9.4% from the previous year), which is an increase of about 17,000 people compared to the previous year. Not only in the data industry, but also in general industries, the number of data workers increased by 8.6% compared to the previous year, showing an increasing trend of data worker utilization in all industries.

The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to quickly implement follow-up measures (corporate support, human resource development, etc.) for the 'First Basic Plan for Data Industry Promotion' based on the results of the '2022 Data Industry Status Survey'. In addition, we plan to continue to develop meaningful indicators that can be used to activate the entire data life cycle from data production, distribution, and utilization, and to reflect them in policies through research and analysis.