The Most Famous People in South Korea
Top 100 of 313 ranked · August 2026 · See today's live standing →
First issue under methodology v5.62. Movement begins with the next issue frozen under the same version.
Lee Jae Myung, Son Heung-min and six presidents: South Korea ranks politics first
iFAMOUS Editorial Desk · 1 min read
South Korea's August 2026 list is led by its president and its football captain, with Jennie and IU the first K-pop names and three dead figures inside the top twelve.
South Korea's list for August 2026 starts at the top of the state. Lee Jae Myung, president since 2025, leads on a score of 71.3, eleven points clear of Son Heung-min, the national team captain now playing for Los Angeles FC, at 60.4. Jesus Christ is third on 59.2, the highest of three dead names in the fifteen. Yoon Suk Yeol, president from 2022 to 2025, is fourth.
For a country the world associates first with pop music, the singers arrive later than expected. Jennie of Blackpink is fifth on 55.6 and IU sixth on 53.8, the two most famous living Korean entertainers by this measure. Jung Kook of BTS is ninth, Jang Won-young thirteenth, and Psy, whose fame long predates the current wave, fourteenth. Five K-pop names against seven presidents is the balance of the table.
Those presidents run deep into the past. Roh Moo-hyun, who died in 2009, is seventh. Moon Jae-in eighth, Park Geun-hye tenth, Park Chung Hee, the third president, twelfth, and Lee Myung-bak fifteenth. Seven occupants of the presidency, two of them dead, sit in a top fifteen with only one athlete besides Son, the Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Lee Kang-in at eleventh.
The engine measured 313 people. Of the top hundred, 93 are South Korean, drawn from only five countries, and 89 are living, one of the highest living shares of any national table. The country's fame is overwhelmingly its own and overwhelmingly contemporary, and the standard reading still ranks its politics above its idols. The ranking measures worldwide fame, and attention on South Korea in August was on its presidency before its stages.
| Rank | Name | Score | Live |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ![]() Lee Jae Myung | 71.3 | iFANN → |
| 2 | ![]() Son Heung-min | 60.4 | iFANN → |
| 3 | ![]() Jesus Christ historical figure | 59.2 | iFANN → |
| 4 | Yoon Suk Yeol | 56.2 | iFANN → |
| 5 | Jennie | 55.6 | iFANN → |
| 6 | IU | 53.8 | iFANN → |
| 7 | Roh Moo-hyun | 48.1 | iFANN → |
| 8 | Moon Jae-in | 47.1 | iFANN → |
| 9 | Jung Kook | 44.1 | iFANN → |
| 10 | Park Geun-hye | 42.5 | iFANN → |
| 11 | Lee Kang-in | 42.2 | iFANN → |
| 12 | Park Chung Hee | 40.9 | iFANN → |
| 13 | Jang Won-young | 40.1 | iFANN → |
| 14 | Psy | 39.9 | iFANN → |
| 15 | Lee Myung-bak | 39.8 | iFANN → |
| 16 | G-Dragon | 39.1 | iFANN → |
| 17 | Jimin | 38.8 | iFANN → |
| 18 | Rain | 38.0 | iFANN → |
| 19 | Hong Myung-bo | 37.8 | iFANN → |
| 20 | Chun Doo-hwan | 36.2 | iFANN → |
| 21 | Yuna Kim | 35.6 | iFANN → |
| 22 | V (Kim Taehyung) | 35.2 | iFANN → |
| 23 | Donald Trump | 34.9 | iFANN → |
| 24 | Karina | 34.9 | iFANN → |
| 25 | Jin | 34.7 | iFANN → |
| 26 | Kim Dae-jung | 34.7 | iFANN → |
| 27 | Syngman Rhee | 34.4 | iFANN → |
| 28 | Park Ji-Sung | 33.8 | iFANN → |
| 29 | Song Ji-hyo | 33.4 | iFANN → |
| 30 | Yoo Jae-suk | 32.9 | iFANN → |
| 31 | Hwasa | 32.3 | iFANN → |
| 32 | J.Y. Park | 32.1 | iFANN → |
| 33 | Han Kang | 32.0 | iFANN → |
| 34 | Kim Soo-hyun | 31.4 | iFANN → |
| 35 | Jisoo | 30.9 | iFANN → |
| 36 | Bae Suzy | 30.2 | iFANN → |
| 37 | Lee Hyori | 29.9 | iFANN → |
| 38 | Kim Ku | 29.8 | iFANN → |
| 39 | Jun Ji-hyun | 29.3 | iFANN → |
| 40 | Lionel Messi | 29.0 | iFANN → |
| 41 | Kim Young-sam | 28.8 | iFANN → |
| 42 | Go Youn-jung | 28.8 | iFANN → |
| 43 | Kim Min-jae | 28.5 | iFANN → |
| 44 | Cristiano Ronaldo | 28.3 | iFANN → |
| 45 | Son Ye-jin | 28.3 | iFANN → |
| 46 | Cortis | 28.0 | iFANN → |
| 47 | Cha Eun-woo | 27.9 | iFANN → |
| 48 | Michael Jackson | 27.8 | iFANN → |
| 49 | Kim Go-eun | 27.3 | iFANN → |
| 50 | Daesung | 26.6 | iFANN → |
| 51 | Cho Yeo-jeong | 26.0 | iFANN → |
| 52 | Gong Hyo-jin | 26.0 | iFANN → |
| 53 | Hyuna | 25.7 | iFANN → |
| 54 | Lee Seung-gi | 25.6 | iFANN → |
| 55 | Ha Ji-won | 25.6 | iFANN → |
| 56 | Song Joong-ki | 25.4 | iFANN → |
| 57 | So Ji-sub | 24.9 | iFANN → |
| 58 | Faker | 24.8 | iFANN → |
| 59 | Taeyang | 24.4 | iFANN → |
| 60 | Ban Ki-moon | 24.2 | iFANN → |
| 61 | Yujin | 24.1 | iFANN → |
| 62 | Lee Jong-suk | 23.9 | iFANN → |
| 63 | Ma Dong-seok | 23.8 | iFANN → |
| 64 | Hyun Bin | 23.8 | iFANN → |
| 65 | RM | 23.5 | iFANN → |
| 66 | Jay Park | 23.4 | iFANN → |
| 67 | Han So-hee | 23.4 | iFANN → |
| 68 | Lee Sedol | 23.2 | iFANN → |
| 69 | Yoo Ah-in | 23.0 | iFANN → |
| 70 | An Se-young | 22.8 | iFANN → |
| 71 | Lee Young-ae | 22.8 | iFANN → |
| 72 | Ailee | 22.7 | iFANN → |
| 73 | Shin Min-a | 22.7 | iFANN → |
| 74 | Lee Hye-ri | 22.4 | iFANN → |
| 75 | Kim Ji-won | 22.3 | iFANN → |
| 76 | Justin Bieber | 22.0 | iFANN → |
| 77 | Seungri | 21.9 | iFANN → |
| 78 | SUGA | 21.9 | iFANN → |
| 79 | Lee Byung-hun | 21.7 | iFANN → |
| 80 | Seulgi | 21.5 | iFANN → |
| 81 | BoA | 21.3 | iFANN → |
| 82 | Byeon Woo-seok | 20.7 | iFANN → |
| 83 | Kim You-jung | 20.7 | iFANN → |
| 84 | Park Ji-yeon | 20.4 | iFANN → |
| 85 | Choi Ye-na | 20.3 | iFANN → |
| 86 | Kim Hee-chul | 20.0 | iFANN → |
| 87 | JIHYO | 19.3 | iFANN → |
| 88 | Goo Hara | 19.0 | iFANN → |
| 89 | Hwang Hee-chan | 19.0 | iFANN → |
| 90 | Jang Dong-gun | 18.7 | iFANN → |
| 91 | Haha | 18.6 | iFANN → |
| 92 | Ki Sung-yueng | 18.5 | iFANN → |
| 93 | Taylor Swift | 18.5 | iFANN → |
| 94 | Sulli | 18.4 | iFANN → |
| 95 | Han Hyo-joo | 18.2 | iFANN → |
| 96 | Park Bo-young | 17.9 | iFANN → |
| 97 | Han Ga-in | 17.9 | iFANN → |
| 98 | Chey Tae-won | 17.8 | iFANN → |
| 99 | Ahn Jung-hwan | 17.6 | iFANN → |
| 100 | Kim Seol-hyun | 17.6 | iFANN → |
About this list
This list ranks the most famous people connected to South Korea as of August 2026, by overall fame rather than one month's attention: the top 100 of 313 names the rankings measured for South Korea, frozen as the permanent record of that edition. This is the standard reading: everyone, living or dead, on one scale. 89 of the 100 listed are living; the Alive reading restricts the same ranking to living people.
Lee Jae Myung is No. 1 on this list for August 2026. Behind Lee Jae Myung come Son Heung-min and Jesus Christ. Evidence coverage for this list is high, so its order can be quoted with confidence.
What famous means here
Fame, in iFAMOUS, is how widely the world knows a name: how recognisable a person's name, face or work is, and how well people know who they are. It is assessed from extensive historical and current public data, some of it reaching back more than twenty years, and it is not merit, talent, importance or popularity on iFANN. The rankings model real-world global fame, not internet fame; the data is the instrument, not the subject. Activity on iFANN itself is excluded.
The month in the title is the date of this edition, not the period measured. The list is a snapshot of overall fame as it stood when the issue was frozen: a name does not lose its place because one month was quiet, and a trending moment alone does not put a name here. Trending attention is published separately on ifann.net.
How the list was ranked
The iFANN Global Fame Rankings combine worldwide Wikipedia readership across languages, worldwide news coverage and search interest anchored against stable reference names, with search history reaching back to 2004. A twelve-month baseline sits behind the current reading and short-lived surges are capped, so the list reflects durable recognition rather than one week of headlines. Rankings are computed daily on ifann.net and frozen on the second day of the following month as that month's issue; a published issue never changes.
About South Korea
South Korea is one of the countries and regions the journal ranks every month. Country lists use the same rankings and the same scale as The 100, so a name can be compared with its neighbours and against the world.
Powered by iFANN
iFAMOUS is published by iFANN and powered by the iFANN Global Fame Rankings v5.62. Today's live standing for this list is on ifann.net; the journal freezes it once a month so it can be cited permanently.
Related searches: most famous people in South Korea 2026, top celebrities in South Korea August 2026, South Korea fame ranking, most famous person in South Korea.
"Lee Jae Myung, No. 1 on The Most Famous People in South Korea", iFAMOUS No. 1 (August 2026), ifamous.org


