Korea's average daily road traffic reached 16,416 vehicles last year, up 0.9% from the previous year, government data showed.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) released the results of its "2025 Road Traffic Survey" on Wednesday, covering 3,983 locations nationwide, including expressways, national highways, and local roads. The increase reflects a combination of growth in vehicle registrations, which rose 0.8% year-on-year, and expanded traffic volume in the Seoul metropolitan area. Road traffic has grown at an average annual rate of 1.2% over the past decade.
By road type, expressways recorded 52,888 vehicles, followed by national highways at 13,071 and local roads at 5,910. Expressways accounted for 73.6% of total traffic.
By vehicle type, passenger cars made up the largest share at 12,003 vehicles, or 73.2% of the total. Trucks numbered 4,110 vehicles (25.0%), up 1.4% from the previous year, while buses stood at 303 vehicles (1.8%), roughly unchanged from a year earlier.
By section, traffic was concentrated on arterial routes in the Seoul metropolitan area across all three road types. On expressways, the Nooji JCT–Seoun JCT section of the First Seoul Metropolitan Beltway recorded the heaviest traffic at 224,238 vehicles. Among national highways, the Seoul city boundary–Jangang IC section of Route 77 (Jayuro) saw the most traffic at 205,815 vehicles.
Daytime hours, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., accounted for 76.5% of total traffic, with 4 to 5 p.m. identified as the most congested period of the day. By day of the week, Friday recorded the highest traffic volume.
The survey results are available starting Wednesday on the Ministry's Transport Statistics portal and the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology's traffic information system.
