Where Korean actors and singers studied
55 schools, each with the people we counted from it. Open one to see the names.
Every number here is a floor. Wikidata records a school for 4,535 of the 9,249 people we hold. For the other 4,714 we do not know where they studied — and not knowing is not the same as not having gone.
The schools
Largest count first. That is not a ranking. A bigger count reflects how large the school is, how long it has existed, and who happens to have a Wikidata entry.
We hold 1529 schools in all. 1474 of them have fewer than 15 people we could count, and we do not publish a page for those — they are counted, not hidden.
How far each school’s alumni travel
A Wikipedia article that exists in ten or more languages has been written up outside Korea. Across every school we can count, 2,328 of 5,907 counted alumni clear that line — 39.4% (38.2–40.7). The schools below are the 45 with at least 20 counted alumni, largest first.
| What we counted | Number |
|---|---|
| Entertainers with a school recorded on Wikidata | 4,535 |
| School–person links counted (people at two schools count twice) | 5,907 |
| Schools seen at all | 1,519 |
| Schools with at least 20 counted alumni | 45 |
| Alumni in ten or more language editions | 2,328 |
| That share, across every school | 39.4% |
Read the interval, not the percentage. A school with 23 alumni and one with 352 both get a percentage, but only the second one is a stable figure. Where two schools’ intervals overlap, this table cannot tell them apart — and most of them overlap. Sorting by percentage would turn that into a league table it is not.
| School | Counted alumni | Median language editions | In 10+ editions | Share | 95% interval |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seoul Institute of the Arts | 352 | 6 | 109 | 31.0% | 26.4–36.0 |
| Chung-Ang University | 310 | 6 | 108 | 34.8% | 29.7–40.3 |
| Dongduk Women's University | 206 | 2 | 59 | 28.6% | 22.9–35.2 |
| Dongguk University | 200 | 6 | 83 | 41.5% | 34.9–48.4 |
| Kyung Hee University | 145 | 8 | 65 | 44.8% | 37.0–53.0 |
| Dankook University | 143 | 4 | 48 | 33.6% | 26.3–41.6 |
| Hanyang University | 139 | 9 | 65 | 46.8% | 38.7–55.0 |
| School of Performing Arts Seoul | 125 | 13 | 73 | 58.4% | 49.6–66.7 |
| Hanlim Multi Art School | 123 | 11 | 65 | 52.8% | 44.1–61.4 |
| Korea National University of Arts | 115 | 7 | 45 | 39.1% | 30.7–48.3 |
| Dong-Ah Institute of Media and Arts | 82 | 4 | 26 | 31.7% | 22.6–42.4 |
| Sungkyunkwan University | 78 | 9 | 38 | 48.7% | 37.9–59.6 |
| Konkuk University | 76 | 11 | 43 | 56.6% | 45.4–67.1 |
| Yonsei University | 75 | 2 | 12 | 16.0% | 9.4–25.9 |
| Sejong University | 72 | 7 | 25 | 34.7% | 24.8–46.2 |
| Korea University | 72 | 4 | 22 | 30.6% | 21.1–42.0 |
| Myongji University | 62 | 8 | 27 | 43.5% | 31.9–55.9 |
| Seoul National University | 50 | 7 | 19 | 38.0% | 25.9–51.8 |
| Sangmyung University | 49 | 3 | 20 | 40.8% | 28.2–54.8 |
| Ewha Womans University | 48 | 1 | 10 | 20.8% | 11.7–34.3 |
| Kyonggi University | 46 | 7 | 17 | 37.0% | 24.5–51.4 |
| Anyang Arts High School | 42 | 3 | 15 | 35.7% | 23.0–50.8 |
| Sungshin Women's University | 40 | 2 | 11 | 27.5% | 16.1–42.8 |
| Kyung Hee Cyber University | 35 | 13 | 23 | 65.7% | 49.2–79.2 |
| Hongik University | 35 | 3 | 6 | 17.1% | 8.1–32.7 |
| Baekseok Arts University | 34 | 1 | 4 | 11.8% | 4.7–26.6 |
| Kookmin University | 34 | 7 | 12 | 35.3% | 21.5–52.1 |
| Inha University | 31 | 12 | 17 | 54.8% | 37.8–70.8 |
| Cheongju University | 31 | 1 | 5 | 16.1% | 7.1–32.6 |
| Howon University | 29 | 8 | 14 | 48.3% | 31.4–65.6 |
| Hankuk University of Foreign Studies | 27 | 5 | 8 | 29.6% | 15.9–48.5 |
| Korea National Open University | 27 | 1 | 4 | 14.8% | 5.9–32.5 |
| Myongji College | 26 | 1 | 3 | 11.5% | 4.0–29.0 |
| University of Suwon | 26 | 2 | 10 | 38.5% | 22.4–57.5 |
| Yong In University | 25 | 6 | 9 | 36.0% | 20.2–55.5 |
| Daejin University | 24 | 8 | 11 | 45.8% | 27.9–64.9 |
| Sookmyung Women's University | 24 | 1 | 3 | 12.5% | 4.3–31.0 |
| Global Cyber University | 24 | 10 | 15 | 62.5% | 42.7–78.8 |
| Seorabeol Art College | 23 | 1 | 0 | 0.0% | 0.0–14.3 |
| Chugye University for the Arts | 23 | 1 | 3 | 13.0% | 4.5–32.1 |
| Sogang University | 22 | 2 | 5 | 22.7% | 10.1–43.4 |
| Kaywon High School of Arts | 22 | 1 | 7 | 31.8% | 16.4–52.7 |
| Hanyang Women's University | 22 | 1 | 4 | 18.2% | 7.3–38.5 |
| Korea Art High School | 20 | 10 | 12 | 60.0% | 38.7–78.1 |
| Kyungsung University | 20 | 2 | 4 | 20.0% | 8.1–41.6 |
Two schools at the ends of this table can be told apart: Kyung Hee Cyber University at 65.7% (49.2–79.2) on 35 alumni, and Seorabeol Art College at 0% (0–14.3) on 23. Their intervals do not overlap. That is the only kind of comparison this table supports.
A person who studied at two schools is counted at both, so the alumni column adds up to more than the number of people we hold. And a wide language footprint is not the same as being widely read — it means an article exists in those languages, nothing more. How we counted this →
14 seconds, with sound
Fourteen seconds: one name, Lee You-mi, moves a whole school's figure from 43 countries to 25. The school did not travel — a person did. Free to repost with the address on it.
All our short films — each one built from a table on this site
Other ways into the same people
Card set — free to share
Five cards, 1080×1350. Every figure on them is in the table on this page. Take them.
What we wrote from this data
- One Seoul arts high school crosses more languages than SKY combined
We joined 4,535 Korean entertainers to the schools Wikidata records for them. School of Performing Arts Seoul put 58.4% of its 125 alumni into ten or more language editions. Yonsei managed 16.0% of 75.
4 September 2026
- Jisoo and Jungkook went to the same arts high school
Four Hands, Two Sonatas — the Korean drama that broke into the world's 1,000 most-read Wikipedia articles this week — is set in an arts high school. Those schools are real. We counted 366 Korean stars across seven of them.
1 September 2026
- The biggest Korean arts school is not the K-pop idol school
Seoul Institute of the Arts has 352 people in our roster, more than any school. Twenty-eight are in a group. School of Performing Arts Seoul has 102.
28 August 2026
- The Korean school with the most alumni travels the least
Seoul Institute of the Arts has more alumni in our Netflix set than any school. Their titles reach a median of 16 countries. Dongguk's reach 41.5.
28 August 2026
What this list is, and what we left out
A school gets no page unless at least fifteen people in our roster attended it. Schools below that line are still counted here.
Wikidata records a height (P2048) for only 320 of the 9,249 people in our roster — 3.5%. "kpop idols height" had even more autocomplete demand, but naming "the tallest" from 3.5% of a roster would be a page that states a wrong answer confidently. We did not build it.
- Dropped for not being in the roster
- 0