There are approximately 17 million living people with this surname.

Some places, such as Taiwan, usually romanise this family name into "Kao".

[1] The Korean surname, "Ko" or "Koh", is derived from and written with the same Chinese character (高).

[2] Zhuanxu, the grandson of the Yellow Emperor, was also known as Gao Yang (高陽).

[3] Prince Gao was the son of Duke Wen of the state of Qi whose ancestral name was Jiang (姜).