By Diplomacy Journal Lee Kap-soo

The number of Starbucks stores in South Korea ranks fourth in the world, after the United States, China and Japan.

According to Starbucks' global website on Feb. 12, the number of Starbucks stores in South Korea totaled 1,893 at the end of last year, up 116 from the previous year. That's just eight fewer than Japan (1,901), which has 2.5 times the population of South Korea.

The number of Starbucks stores in South Korea has steadily increased by more than 100 each year, from 1,508 in 2020 to 1,639 in 2021 and 1,777 in 2022.

In Japan, the number of Starbucks stores grew from 1,629 in 2020, 1,706 in 2021, and 1,794 in 2022, but at a slower pace than in Korea.

The gap between the number of stores in Korea and Japan has gradually narrowed from 121 in 2020 to 67 in 2021 and 17 in 2022. If this trend continues, South Korea could overtake Japan for third place in terms of number of Starbucks stores within a year or two.

Starbucks Korea, which celebrated its 25th anniversary this year, opened its first store in July 1999 in front of Ewha Womans University, three years later than Japan, which opened its first store in 1996 in Ginza, Tokyo. Since then, the number of stores has skyrocketed, surpassing 1,000 in December 2016. Starbucks hasn't slowed down despite the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite having fewer stores than EDIYA, which has more than 3,000 stores, Starbucks remains the industry leader with sales of 758.7 billion won as of the third quarter of last year. Globally, it ranks second only to the United States in terms of stores per population in the developed world.

Meanwhile, there are 38,587 Starbucks stores worldwide, with the U.S. accounting for 16,466 and China accounting for 6,975. Together, these two countries account for 61% of the world's stores. Japan and South Korea are third and fourth, respectively, followed by Canada (1,465) and the United Kingdom (1,297).