Police officers conduct a year-end spot check for drunk driving on a road near Wolmido in Incheon’s Jung District, Dec. 11, 2025. Newsis

Drunk driving in Korea has dropped to nearly one-sixth of its level a decade ago, as shifting social attitudes increasingly view getting behind the wheel after drinking as unacceptable behavior, government data showed Sunday.

According to the 2025 Alcohol Statistics Data Collection by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Health Promotion Development Institute, 2.1 percent of adults aged 19 and older said they had driven a car or motorcycle at least once in the past year after drinking in 2023, down sharply from 12.6 percent in 2013.

The indicator is based on the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which annually surveys over 10,000 people about whether they have driven after consuming any amount of alcohol over the previous 12 months.

The adult drunk driving experience rate peaked at 17.1 percent in 2011, then steadily declined, dropping below 10 percent for the first time in 2016 and reaching the low 2 percent range in 2023.

Men were more than twice as likely as women to report having driven while under the influence of alcohol in 2023, at 2.6 percent versus 0.9 percent.

By age, people 70 and older had the highest rate at 4.1 percent, followed by those in their 50s at 3.7 percent, 60s at 3.1 percent, 40s at 2.3 percent, 30s at 1.1 percent and people in their 20s at 0.8 percent.

The figures highlight a lingering perception gap among older drivers, who remain more prone to risky drinking and driving habits despite the broader shift toward zero tolerance.

The share of adults who said they had ridden as a passenger in a vehicle driven by someone who had been drinking also plunged over the past decade. That so-called ride-along rate fell from 14.9 percent in 2013 to 3.3 percent in 2023, coming in at 3.5 percent for men and 3.1 percent for women.

Unlike the drunk driving experience rate, ride-along experiences were most common among people in their 50s at 4.9 percent, followed by those in their 60s at 3.8 percent, 20s at 3.7 percent and 40s at 3.1 percent.

Source: Korea Times News