South Korea's Ministry of Statistics to release housing ownership and debt data by year-end

South Korea's Ministry of Statistics plans to push for the enactment of a National Data Framework Act by year-end, aiming to manage data scattered across public and private sectors as a core national asset. The move is designed to build a system for linking and utilizing data — a key resource in the AI era — and to establish a national data governance framework.

The ministry reported its major achievements and progress in national data and statistics to a Cabinet meeting Monday, marking the first anniversary of the People's Sovereignty Government.

The ministry said it had pursued four major initiatives over the past year: establishing pan-government data governance, enhancing data value, developing national statistics, and strengthening statistical services and infrastructure.

The National Data Framework Act bill, submitted to the National Assembly on May 27, includes provisions for building a national data coordination system, designating and managing critical data, linking and utilizing data with quality controls, and designating national data use centers. The ministry is also operating a special subcommittee and a public-private consultative body to gather field opinions and expand cooperation between the public and private sectors.

Commissioner An Hyeong-jun said at a briefing Sunday that the ministry had worked to lay the groundwork for coordinating and utilizing data as a core AI-era resource, on top of its existing statistics-focused work, since its launch in November last year.

"Public data governance has been fragmented across multiple ministries, which has limited asset management and the ability to link and use data," An said. "We will designate national data and establish special provisions for its use so that the public can feel the tangible benefits of data utilization."

The ministry is also developing AI-friendly metadata — including ontologies — and introducing advanced data protection technologies such as homomorphic encryption. Building on the small and medium-sized enterprise statistics database launched in November last year, it plans to complete integrated datasets on elderly residents, deceased persons and homeowners by year-end for use in policy development.

The elderly dataset will combine housing, employment, pension and welfare information to support policy for older adults. The deceased persons dataset will link cause of death with household composition, child-rearing and employment data to serve as a foundation for policies addressing suicide and solitary death. The homeowners dataset will combine housing ownership status, publicly assessed prices and debt information to improve the utility of residential and financial policy.

In national statistics development, the ministry newly developed and published regional supply-and-use tables and expanded the number of areas covered by its lifestyle population statistics from 89 to 107.

The ministry developed a demographic panel dataset to analyze changes in marriage and birth rates by economic and social characteristics, and also provided a range of youth indicators to give a multidimensional picture of young people's quality of life, along with indicators on social isolation and reclusion. It plans to further expand data linkages to comprehensively assess social inequality.

In the second half of this year, the ministry will release results from the Population and Housing Census, the Census of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and the Economic Census, along with a revised consumer price index and updated population projections. The consumer price index revision will adjust items and weightings to reflect changes in consumption patterns and newly emerging spending categories.

The ministry is also working to strengthen national statistical services and infrastructure. To improve public access to data, it has expanded data visualization services and an industry statistics map, and starting this month will use AI technology to extend the operating hours of its statistical data center to nights and weekends.

The ministry is also developing and refining industry-specific classification systems in cooperation with related ministries to support the growth of new industries. It has established a partnership with Korea Post so that mail carriers can assist with field survey operations, as part of broader efforts to strengthen the statistical survey network.

"Data is the source of national competitiveness and a core national asset in the AI era," An said. "We will accelerate data innovation and actively support the resolution of key national challenges through the linking and utilization of diverse data."