# Cosmetics Manufacturers by Region

> Of 4,157 registrations of cosmetics manufacturers, 1,658 (39.9%) are in Gyeonggi-do, followed by Incheon with 457 and Seoul with 439.

Seoul, Gyeonggi-do and Incheon together hold 2,554 registrations, or 61.4%. Korea Cosmetics Safety Information Group shows registrations of the cosmetics manufacturing business (화장품제조업) for 16 provinces and metropolitan cities in a table and a chart.

- Data retrieved: October 4, 2026
- Latest registration: Oct 2, 2026
- Canonical URL: https://en.safecosmetic.org/statistics/cosmetics-manufacturers-by-region

- All manufacturers: 4,157 (As of October 4, 2026)
- Gyeonggi-do: 1,658 (39.9% of the total)
- Incheon: 457 (11.0% of the total)
- Seoul, Gyeonggi-do and Incheon: 61.4% (2,554 registrations)

## Which region has the most cosmetics manufacturers?

Gyeonggi-do. Of 4,157 registrations of cosmetics manufacturers, 1,658 (39.9%) are registered there. Incheon has 457 registrations, and Seoul has 439 registrations.

**Top 8 provinces and metropolitan cities by cosmetics manufacturer registrations** (registrations)

- Gyeonggi-do: 1,658
- Incheon: 457
- Seoul: 439
- Chungcheongbuk-do: 225
- Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City: 175
- Chungcheongnam-do: 167
- Gyeongsangbuk-do: 155
- Gyeongsangnam-do: 150

**Cosmetics manufacturer registrations and shares by province or metropolitan city** (As of October 4, 2026; unit: registrations, %)

| Province or metropolitan city | Registrations | Share |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| Gyeonggi-do | 1,658 | 39.9% |
| Incheon | 457 | 11.0% |
| Seoul | 439 | 10.6% |
| Chungcheongbuk-do | 225 | 5.4% |
| Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City | 175 | 4.2% |
| Chungcheongnam-do | 167 | 4.0% |
| Gyeongsangbuk-do | 155 | 3.7% |
| Gyeongsangnam-do | 150 | 3.6% |
| Busan | 145 | 3.5% |
| Gangwon State | 130 | 3.1% |
| Daegu | 118 | 2.8% |
| Jeonbuk State | 102 | 2.5% |
| Daejeon | 99 | 2.4% |
| Jeju | 73 | 1.8% |
| Ulsan | 37 | 0.9% |
| Sejong | 27 | 0.6% |
| Total | 4,157 | 100.0% |

## How concentrated are cosmetics manufacturers in the Seoul capital area?

61.4%. Seoul, Gyeonggi-do and Incheon hold 2,554 registrations of cosmetics manufacturers.

Within the capital area, Gyeonggi-do and Incheon each have more than Seoul. Seoul has 439 registrations of manufacturers (10.6%) but 10,405 registrations of the responsible seller business (화장품책임판매업), which is 36.7% of all responsible sellers.

**Cosmetics manufacturer and responsible seller registrations in the three capital-area provinces and cities** (As of October 4, 2026; unit: registrations, %)

| Province or metropolitan city | Manufacturers | Manufacturer share | Responsible sellers | Responsible seller share |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| Gyeonggi-do | 1,658 | 39.9% | 9,353 | 33.0% |
| Incheon | 457 | 11.0% | 1,900 | 6.7% |
| Seoul | 439 | 10.6% | 10,405 | 36.7% |

## Which regions outside the Seoul capital area have the most cosmetics manufacturers?

Chungcheongbuk-do. With 225 registrations (5.4%), it has the most outside the capital area, followed by Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City with 175 and Chungcheongnam-do with 167.

The province or metropolitan city with the fewest manufacturers is Sejong, with 27 registrations. All 16 provinces and metropolitan cities have manufacturer registrations.

## How do cosmetics manufacturers divide across regional groups?

The Seoul capital area has 2,554 registrations, followed by the Yeongnam region with 605 and the Chungcheong region with 518. The Yeongnam region figure combines Busan, Daegu, Ulsan, Gyeongsangbuk-do, and Gyeongsangnam-do.

**Cosmetics manufacturer registrations and shares by regional group** (As of October 4, 2026; unit: registrations, %)

| Regional group | Provinces and metropolitan cities included | Manufacturers | Share |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| Seoul capital area | Seoul · Gyeonggi-do · Incheon | 2,554 | 61.4% |
| Yeongnam region | Busan · Daegu · Ulsan · Gyeongsangbuk-do · Gyeongsangnam-do | 605 | 14.6% |
| Chungcheong region | Chungcheongbuk-do · Chungcheongnam-do · Daejeon · Sejong | 518 | 12.5% |
| Honam region | Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City · Jeonbuk State | 277 | 6.7% |
| Gangwon region | Gangwon State | 130 | 3.1% |
| Jeju region | Jeju | 73 | 1.8% |

The regional groups are Korea Cosmetics Safety Information Group's own grouping of provinces and metropolitan cities. The source data does not contain them.

## Which regions have the highest share of cosmetics manufacturers?

Chungcheongbuk-do. Of its 871 entries across all cosmetics business types, 225 (25.8%) are manufacturers. The national average is 12.7%.

**Manufacturer share of all cosmetics businesses by province or metropolitan city** (As of October 4, 2026; unit: entries, registrations, %)

| Province or metropolitan city | All cosmetics businesses | Manufacturers | Manufacturer share |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| Chungcheongbuk-do | 871 | 225 | 25.8% |
| Gyeongsangbuk-do | 687 | 155 | 22.6% |
| Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City | 793 | 175 | 22.1% |
| Chungcheongnam-do | 768 | 167 | 21.7% |
| Gangwon State | 623 | 130 | 20.9% |
| Gyeongsangnam-do | 748 | 150 | 20.1% |
| Jeonbuk State | 518 | 102 | 19.7% |
| Incheon | 2,366 | 457 | 19.3% |
| Jeju | 393 | 73 | 18.6% |
| Ulsan | 216 | 37 | 17.1% |
| Sejong | 164 | 27 | 16.5% |
| Daegu | 778 | 118 | 15.2% |
| Gyeonggi-do | 11,079 | 1,658 | 15.0% |
| Daejeon | 662 | 99 | 15.0% |
| Busan | 1,150 | 145 | 12.6% |
| Seoul | 10,934 | 439 | 4.0% |

Seoul is lowest at 4.0%. The share shows only whether manufacturing or selling has more registrations within a region, and it is a different value from output.

## Which cities, counties and districts have the most cosmetics manufacturers?

Namdong-gu, Incheon. It has 203 registrations of manufacturers, followed by Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi-do (139) and Gimpo-si, Gyeonggi-do (112).

The top 30 are in [Top Cosmetics Manufacturing Areas](https://en.safecosmetic.org/statistics/cosmetics-manufacturer-cities).

## What should you watch for when reading cosmetics manufacturers by region figures?

The location is the city, county or district written in the registration list. The list does not show which address a company registered when its head office and factory are in different regions.

The figures are registration counts, not output or employee numbers. Nothing in this data supports saying that a region with more registrations has larger production.

The registration list does not state why manufacturers cluster in a region. Korea Cosmetics Safety Information Group has not estimated a reason.

## How were the cosmetics manufacturers by region figures counted?

We counted the registration list retrieved on October 4, 2026 through the cosmetics manufacturer information function of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety dataset "Cosmetics Information" on Korea's Public Data Portal. The list holds the business type, company name, registration (permit) date, and the city, county or district of the location.

- The list retrieved has 32,927 entries. Lines with the same company serial number and business type (177 entries) were counted once, leaving 32,750 entries.
- Figures count business registrations and notifications. A company registered as both a manufacturer and a responsible seller counts as 2.
- Lines whose location used a former administrative name (Jeollabuk-do 14, Jeollanam-do 18, Gangwon-do 9, Gwangju 12) were merged under the current name.
- The latest registration date is October 2, 2026. Totals and shares were calculated by Korea Cosmetics Safety Information Group by counting the list.

## Frequently asked questions

### Which province or metropolitan city has the most cosmetics manufacturers?

Gyeonggi-do. As of October 4, 2026, it holds 1,658 (39.9%) of the 4,157 registrations of manufacturers.

### How many cosmetics manufacturers are in Seoul?

Seoul has 439 registrations of manufacturers, 10.6% of the total. Responsible sellers in Seoul hold 10,405 registrations.

### Which has more cosmetics manufacturers, Incheon or Gyeonggi-do?

Gyeonggi-do has 1,658 registrations, and Incheon has 457 registrations. At the city, county and district level, Namdong-gu, Incheon has the most, with 203 registrations.

### Do manufacturer counts by region show production scale?

No. The registration list has no production records and does not state the size of any company.

### Do the Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City figures include the former Jeollanam-do and Gwangju?

Yes. Lines in the source data that say Jeollanam-do or Gwangju were merged under Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City. The number of merged lines is in the section on how the figures were counted.

## Sources

- [Ministry of Food and Drug Safety: Cosmetics Information dataset](https://www.data.go.kr/data/15020628/openapi.do) - Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS), Public Data Portal open API · page in Korean · retrieved oct 4, 2026
- [MFDS Nedrug company search](https://nedrug.mfds.go.kr/pbp/CCBBA01) - Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS), Integrated drug information system · page in Korean
- [Cosmetics Act](https://www.law.go.kr/%EB%B2%95%EB%A0%B9/%ED%99%94%EC%9E%A5%ED%92%88%EB%B2%95) - Ministry of Government Legislation, National Law Information Center · in force April 2, 2026 · page in Korean