Gyeonggi-do
Gyeonggi-do shows preferential attachment: province surrounding Seoul produces 25% of Korea's GDP, housing Samsung HQ since 2016 and 13.55 million people in the world's 6th largest metro economy.
Gyeonggi-do exhibits preferential attachment at national scale—the province surrounding Seoul that captures ever more of Korea's economic activity. With 13.55 million residents producing 25% of national GDP, Gyeonggi forms the industrial substrate of the Seoul Metropolitan Area, the world's fourth-largest metro population (26 million) and sixth-largest metropolitan economy. The province demonstrates how capital regions accumulate advantage: each new factory, research center, or logistics hub benefits from Seoul's existing infrastructure, talent pool, and market access.
The pattern crystallized when Samsung Electronics established production facilities in Suwon in 1969, manufacturing black-and-white televisions and refrigerators. By the 1970s, the chaebol's growth had transformed Suwon into a manufacturing hub; by 2016, Samsung relocated its headquarters to the city. Today Suwon's population exceeds 1.24 million, and Samsung's semiconductor exports alone reached $15 billion monthly in August 2025. The keystone species effect is unmistakable: Samsung's supply chains, workforce demands, and innovation ecosystem shape the province's economic structure.
Gyeonggi embodies the extended phenotype of Seoul—economically inseparable yet administratively distinct. The province's 10,200 square kilometers represent just 12% of Korea's area yet house over 48% of the national population when combined with Seoul and Incheon. This metabolic concentration creates self-reinforcing dynamics: young workers migrate for opportunities, companies locate near talent, infrastructure investment follows population, and the cycle accelerates. Whether this represents healthy ecosystem concentration or dangerous monoculture vulnerability depends on whether South Korea can survive without its central nervous system.