10 Countries Where Taekwondo Is Most Popular (Ranked)

Taekwondo is most popular in South Korea, Turkey, Iran and the United States. All 10 countries ranked by Olympic medals, clubs and star athletes.

South Korea is the home of taekwondo and still the sport’s dominant nation: it has won 14 of the 56 Olympic gold medals awarded since taekwondo became a medal sport at Sydney 2000, and its Kukkiwon in Seoul is the world headquarters of the Olympic style. Turkey, Iran and the United States follow as the countries with the biggest competitive and club scenes outside Korea.

Below you will find the full ranking, a table with the key numbers, a profile of every country and a separate list of the nations that win the most Olympic and World Championship medals.

Countries where taekwondo is most popular:

1. South Korea
2. Turkey
3. Iran
4. United States
5. Mexico
6. China
7. Spain
8. France
9. Brazil
10. Russia

Taekwondo Popularity by Country at a Glance

How We Ranked the Countries

We weighed four things: how many people practise (national federation figures and estimates, which are often rounded and rarely audited), how many clubs and dojangs a country has, how much taekwondo matters in its sporting culture, and how well its athletes do at the Olympics and the World Championships. World Taekwondo counts about 215 member national associations, but there is no audited global participation count, so we give federation estimates only where a source exists and say so.

The comparison number in the glance table is the total of Olympic medals won since taekwondo joined the Games as a full medal sport in 2000 (Wikipedia’s all-time table after Paris 2024). Russia appears with its own medals plus those won as the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) at Tokyo 2020, and we do not rank it on current form.

#1 South Korea

• 🥋 Olympic medals: 25, including 14 golds, the most of any nation
• 🏛️ Headquarters: Kukkiwon (1972) and World Taekwondo (1973), both in Seoul
• 🏫 Dojangs: roughly 9,000 to 10,000 dojangs registered with the Korea Taekwondo Association (KTA)
• 🏆 World titles: 178 World Championship golds
• ⭐ Stars: Moon Dae-sung, Hwang Kyung-seon, Kim So-hui, Park Tae-joon, Kim Yu-jin

Modern taekwondo took shape in Seoul after the Second World War. Martial arts schools called kwans opened in the 1940s and 1950s, the Korea Taekwondo Association was formed in 1959, the Kukkiwon was set up as the national academy in 1972, and the World Taekwondo Federation was founded there on 28 May 1973. The first World Championships were held at the Kukkiwon the same year. Taekwondo was a demonstration sport at the Seoul Olympics in 1988.

The Korea Taekwondo Association has put the number of registered dojangs at around 10,000, and the association says its schools produce hundreds of thousands of black belt candidates every year. On the mat Korea has won 25 Olympic medals, including two golds and a bronze at Paris 2024 (Park Tae-joon and Kim Yu-jin took gold, Lee Da-bin bronze). Hwang Kyung-seon won Olympic golds in 2008 and 2012, and at the 2025 World Championships in Wuxi Kang Sang-hyun won the men’s over 87 kg title.

#2 Turkey

• 🥋 Olympic medals: 10 (1 gold, 3 silver, 6 bronze)
• 👥 Licensed athletes: more than 400,000 (Wikipedia); the former federation president Metin Şahin spoke of 800,000
• 🏆 World titles: 21 World Championship golds, third all time
• 📅 History: recognised in 1968 under judo, own federation in 1981
• ⭐ Stars: Servet Tazegül, Nur Tatar, Nafia Kuş, Merve Dinçel Kavurat

Taekwondo reached Turkey in the 1960s and was officially recognised in 1968 under the judo federation. It became independent in 1981, when the Turkey Taekwondo Federation was founded. Wikipedia counts more than 400,000 licensed participants, while Metin Şahin, who led the federation for many years, claimed the figure had reached 800,000. Neither number is audited.

Servet Tazegül won bronze in 2008 and Turkey’s only Olympic gold in 2012, and Nur Tatar and Nafia Kuş have added medals since. At the 2025 World Championships in Wuxi Turkey topped the table with three golds, among them Merve Dinçel Kavurat in the women’s under 53 kg class and Nafia Kuş in the women’s heavyweight division. Bahri Tanrıkulu, Olympic silver medallist in 2004 and a former world champion, took over as federation president in 2024.

#3 Iran

• 🥋 Olympic medals: 10 (3 gold, 3 silver, 4 bronze)
• 🏫 Gyms: about 4,000 taekwondo gyms and roughly 2 million practitioners (Sportcal, 2010 estimate)
• 🏆 World titles: 16 World Championship golds
• 📅 Pathway: cadet league championships from the age of eight
• ⭐ Stars: Hadi Saei, Kimia Alizadeh, Arian Salimi

Iran has built one of the strongest taekwondo programmes in the world. A 2010 Sportcal report put the country’s taekwondo population at about 2 million with around 4,000 gyms, and the national cadet league starts at the age of eight. Treat the figure as an old estimate.

Hadi Saei won bronze in 2000 and gold in 2004 and 2008. Kimia Alizadeh won bronze at Rio 2016, which World Taekwondo described as the first Olympic medal ever won by an Iranian woman. At Paris 2024 Iran took four medals: Arian Salimi won gold in the over 80 kg class, Mehran Barkhordari and Nahid Kiani took silver, and Mobina Nematzadeh bronze.

#4 United States

• 🥋 Olympic medals: 11 (3 gold, 2 silver, 6 bronze)
• 🏆 World titles: 14 World Championship golds
• 🏛️ Governing body: named top World Taekwondo member national association in 2025 (best in governance in 2024)
• ⭐ Stars: Steven López, Mark López, Diana López, Anastasija Zolotic
• 📅 Latest medals: Kristina Teachout won bronze at Paris 2024

The United States is the most successful non-Asian taekwondo nation at the Olympics, with 11 medals since 2000. Steven López won gold in 2000 and 2004 and bronze in 2008, while his brother Mark took silver in 2008 and his sister Diana bronze in the same Games. Anastasija Zolotic won the women’s under 57 kg gold at Tokyo 2020.

USA Taekwondo announced in October 2025, at the World Championships in Wuxi, that it had been named the number one World Taekwondo member national association for the second year in a row. The ranking is based on international performance, governance, athlete development and event management, and the United States was second only to Korea in athletic performance.

#5 Mexico

• 🥋 Olympic medals: 7 (2 gold, 2 silver, 3 bronze)
• 👥 Practitioners: about 1.5 million (rough estimate, not audited)
• 🏆 World titles: 7 World Championship golds
• ⭐ Stars: María del Rosario Espinoza, Guillermo Pérez, Óscar Salazar
• 📅 First medal: Victor Estrada, bronze at Sydney 2000

Taekwondo is one of the most successful Olympic sports for Mexico. Mexican sources often speak of about 1.5 million practitioners, a round figure that has been repeated for years and should be read as a rough estimate rather than a headcount.

María del Rosario Espinoza is the country’s great champion: she won gold in the over 67 kg class in 2008, bronze in 2012 and silver in 2016. Guillermo Pérez won the men’s under 58 kg gold at the same Games, so Mexico left Beijing with two taekwondo titles.

#6 China

• 🥋 Olympic medals: 13 (7 gold, 2 silver, 4 bronze)
• 🏛️ Federation: Chinese Taekwondo Association, national federation for taekwondo in China
• 🏆 World titles: 14 World Championship golds
• ⭐ Stars: Chen Zhong, Luo Wei, Wu Jingyu, Zhao Shuai, Zheng Shuyin
• 📅 Latest edition: hosted the 2025 World Championships in Wuxi

China is the second most successful Olympic taekwondo nation after Korea, with seven golds, and nearly all of them were won by women. Chen Zhong took the heavyweight title in 2000 and 2004, Luo Wei won the under 67 kg class in 2004, Wu Jingyu won the under 49 kg class in 2008 and 2012, and Zheng Shuyin took the heavyweight gold in 2016.

Zhao Shuai added the men’s under 58 kg gold in 2016. The country hosted the 2025 World Championships in Wuxi, where 853 athletes from 145 nations competed. China won nine medals there, but eight of them were bronze, one was silver and none was gold. We found no reliable national participation figure.

#7 Spain

• 🥋 Olympic medals: 7 (1 gold, 5 silver, 1 bronze)
• 🏆 World titles: 23 World Championship golds, second all time
• ⭐ Stars: Joel González, Eva Calvo, Brigitte Yagüe, Adriana Cerezo
• 📅 First medal: Gabriel Esparza, silver at Sydney 2000

Spain’s World Championship record is the best in Europe. Its 23 World Championship golds are second only to South Korea’s 178, and its taekwondo players have won seven Olympic medals, five of them silver.

Gabriel Esparza took silver in 2000, and Joel González won gold in 2012 and bronze in 2016. At London 2012 Nicolás García and Brigitte Yagüe won silver, Eva Calvo took silver at Rio 2016, and Adriana Cerezo won silver at Tokyo 2020.

#8 France

• 🥋 Olympic medals: 10 (1 gold, 3 silver, 6 bronze)
• 🏆 World titles: 8 World Championship golds
• 🏫 Federation: Run by the national federation, the FFTDA
• ⭐ Stars: Pascal Gentil, Althéa Laurin, Marlène Harnois, Cyrian Ravet
• 📅 Latest medals: two at Paris 2024: Laurin gold, Ravet bronze

France has won 10 Olympic taekwondo medals, level with Turkey and Great Britain. Pascal Gentil took bronze in the over 80 kg class in 2000 and 2004, and Gwladys Épangue, Marlène Harnois, Myriam Baverel, Anne-Caroline Graffe and Haby Niaré all reached the podium in other years.

The big moment came at home in Paris 2024, when Althéa Laurin won the women’s over 67 kg title, France’s first Olympic taekwondo gold. She had taken bronze at Tokyo 2020, and Cyrian Ravet added a bronze in the men’s under 58 kg class in Paris. The national federation, the FFTDA, runs the sport in France.

#9 Brazil

• 🥋 Olympic medals: 3 bronze
• ⭐ Stars: Natália Falavigna, Maicon Andrade, Edival Pontes, Henrique Marques, Maria Clara Pacheco
• 📅 Wuxi 2025: two golds and two silvers, third in the medal table

Brazil has not yet won an Olympic taekwondo gold, but it has been on the podium three times: Natália Falavigna took bronze in the over 67 kg class in 2008, Maicon Andrade won bronze in the heavyweight division in 2016, and Edival Pontes won bronze in the under 68 kg class at Paris 2024.

The 2025 World Championships in Wuxi brought Brazil’s best result in years. Henrique Marques won the men’s under 80 kg title and Maria Clara Pacheco the women’s under 57 kg title, and the team finished third in the medal table with two golds and two silvers.

#10 Russia

• 🥋 Olympic medals: 8: 4 as Russia (2 silver, 2 bronze), 4 as ROC (2 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze)
• ⭐ Stars: Maksim Khramtsov, Vladislav Larin, Aleksey Denisenko, Tatiana Minina
• 📅 Status: neutral athletes only since 2023, after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine

Russian taekwondo players reached the Olympic podium in 2000, with Natalia Ivanova’s silver in the heavyweight class, and again in 2012 and 2016 through Aleksey Denisenko, who took bronze and then silver. Anastasia Baryshnikova won bronze in 2012.

At Tokyo 2020, competing as the Russian Olympic Committee, Maksim Khramtsov won the men’s under 80 kg gold and Vladislav Larin the over 80 kg gold, while Tatiana Minina took silver and Mikhail Artamonov bronze. Since 2022 Russian athletes have been barred from international competition under their own flag, and World Taekwondo decided in 2023 to readmit them only as vetted neutrals.

Which Countries Are Best at Taekwondo?

Popularity and success are not the same thing. This table counts Olympic gold medals and Olympic medals in total from Sydney 2000 to Paris 2024, plus World Championship golds, according to Wikipedia’s all-time medal tables.

Other Countries Where Taekwondo Is Growing

These countries just missed the ranking but have a strong taekwondo scene.

More About Taekwondo

• History of Taekwondo
• Taekwondo lingo and slang
• Taekwondo equipment list

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