Daegu and Gyeongbuk Medical Tourism

How many institutions are registered for Daegu and Gyeongbuk medical tourism?

178 in 2022, with 163 in Daegu and 15 in Gyeongbuk. Against the 2,023 that the 17 regions add up to, that is 8.8% (178 ÷ 2,023).

The figures above count hospitals and clinics that have registered in order to attract foreign patients, and the current law has them register with the city or provincial governor. How many foreign patients were treated in Daegu and Gyeongbuk does not appear in these statistics.

The national 2,023 includes the 2022 value for Gyeonggi, which is 12. Gyeonggi stood at 151 in 2021, and the source gives no reason for the difference.

How has the number of Daegu and Gyeongbuk medical tourism institutions moved from year to year?

The 2022 count of 178 is 82 above the 96 of 2021. Before that, the high point was 197 in 2016, and from 2017 to 2021 the count stayed between 88 and 111.

The 2017 figure of 93 is 47.2% of the 197 recorded in 2016 (93 ÷ 197). Daegu was down by 84 and Gyeongbuk by 20. By June of that year, institutions already registered had to meet requirements including insurance cover and renew their registration. What the law and the ministry's press releases establish is set out in Why Korea's Registered Hospitals Fell from 3,115 to 1,664 in 2017.

In 2020 the count fell by 23 to 88, the lowest of the 14 years. The 2022 increase is 78 in Daegu and 4 in Gyeongbuk. Daegu is recorded at 163 after 85 in 2021, its second-highest figure after 166 in 2016. The source gives no reason. The national figures for 2020 and 2021 are in What Happened to Korea's Registered Hospitals During COVID-19? for comparison.

How much of the national total does Daegu and Gyeongbuk medical tourism represent?

8.8% in 2022, the highest of the 14 years. It was 6.1% in 2021, and the lowest share was 5.4% in 2018 and 2019.

The 2022 share reflects a year in which the Daegu and Gyeongbuk count rose by 82 and in which the national total, the denominator, includes Gyeonggi at 12. Gyeonggi had been at 151 in 2021. Daegu ranked 4th in every year from 2009 to 2021 and is 3rd in 2022, behind Seoul and Busan. Gyeongbuk is 13th.

A table that sets these two beside the other regions is in Korea Medical Tourism Hospitals by Region.

Where can you find Daegu and Gyeongbuk medical tourism figures after 2022?

A list dated 21 Jul 2026 gives 175 medical institutions: 156 in Daegu and 19 in Gyeongbuk. The yearly statistics have no values after 2022.

That 178 in the 2022 statistics and 175 on the list are close does not show that the count held steady in between. One is a yearly total with no stated definition, and the other is a list recording registration status on a single day. Within the list, Daegu and Gyeongbuk hold 4.2%, and facilitators number 51 in Daegu and 10 in Gyeongbuk.

Which official offices handle Daegu and Gyeongbuk medical tourism?

2 for Daegu and 1 for Gyeongbuk. In the Medical Korea list of official websites they appear under these names: Daegu Metropolitan City Department of Health and Medical Policy, Daegu Medical Tourism Promotion Institute and The Province of Gyeongsangbuk-do Welfare Policy.

All 3 addresses opened on 5 Oct 2026. To point a patient to an office, copy its name from the second table in the patient's language. Daegu is listed with a city department and the Daegu Medical Tourism Promotion Institute and Gyeongbuk with one provincial department, and contacts for the whole country are gathered in Medical Tourism Offices in Korea by Region.

What should you keep in mind when reading the figures on Daegu and Gyeongbuk medical tourism?

The source file does not define its figures. Neither the file nor the portal description says whether a number is the count of institutions holding a registration at year end or the count registered during that year. It is also a different statistic from the number of patients treated.

The source does not say why the Daegu figure rose by 78 in a single year in 2022. The national total for the same year includes Gyeonggi at 12, so the 8.8% share for Daegu and Gyeongbuk is a figure divided by that total, and Daegu's 3rd place is the rank for a year in which Gyeonggi is recorded at that value. The pairing of Daegu and Gyeongbuk is K-Medical Tourism Institute's own grouping of two neighboring regions, and the Gyeongbuk figure, 15, is small. Counts of institutions cannot show the quality or cost of care, or how hospitals differ from one another.

Where do the figures on Daegu and Gyeongbuk medical tourism come from, and how were they calculated?

The figures are taken as published from "Medical institutions registered to attract foreign patients, by year and region", a file the Korea Health Industry Development Institute released on the Korean Public Data Portal (data as of 31 Dec 2022). The file lists 17 regions and has no national total, so K-Medical Tourism Institute added the 17 regional values to get the nationwide figures, and calculated shares and changes from the same values.

The 21 Jul 2026 figures are counts by region and institution type from "Registered institutions and facilitators for foreign patients (list)", a 6,921-row list published by the same institute. 33 rows have the word "test" in the institution or representative name. They could not be told apart from real entries with certainty and were left in, so the true number of institutions may be slightly lower.

The list reproduces the names and addresses of the 36 entries in "Medical Korea list of useful websites for medical tourism", published by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute on the Korean Public Data Portal (data as of 29 Aug 2023). The source has no categories or regions; K-Medical Tourism Institute added them. The link check is K-Medical Tourism Institute's own: each address was opened on 5 Oct 2026, with 32 opening, 1 with a changed path, 1 that could not be verified automatically and 2 not responding.