Korean (조선말)
Korean (ko, kor) is a world language. Wikidata records about 77.3M speakers. It is written in Hangul and Hanja. It is an official language in 2 countries, including North Korea and South Korea.
Korean uses Hangul with spaces; speech levels and honorifics shape every sentence. Particles change with the preceding sound, which complicates variables.
Text translated from English into Korean typically becomes 10–15% shorter.
In the United States, 1,101,846 people aged 5+ speak Korean at home (Census ACS), and 555,923 of them (50%) speak English less than "very well" — a key indicator of demand for Korean translators and interpreters.
Translation guides
Where Korean is official
- North Korea
- South Korea
Rates for Korean translation
Korean falls in our east asian band: roughly $0.10–$0.22 per word for general commercial work. These are indicative ranges, not quotes — specialised, certified and rush work costs more, and literary translation is usually priced per 1,000 words.
For context, the median salaried translator or interpreter in the US earned $60,170 in May 2025 (BLS). See salaries by state →
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