KIRD Korea Immigration Regional Dashboard
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Registered foreigners are counted across 192 nationalities.

Argentina

People registered with Argentina nationality number 224, which is less than 0.1% of all registered foreigners and ranks 93 in size. Compared with 92 in 2015, 10 years earlier, that is an increase of about 143.5%. They live in 100 districts, and the largest counts are Seoul Yongsan-gu with 18, Seoul Gwanak-gu with 13, and Seoul Jung-gu with 8. The index of dissimilarity (D) from Koreans is 0.47, the isolation index is 0, and interaction with Koreans is 0.963. The highest location quotient (LQ) is in Seoul Yongsan-gu at 20.4, where this nationality is 0% of the foreigners in that district. The continent of origin is Latin America. The largest age group is 30-34 at 19.8%, and men are 46.9%. This value alone is based on staying foreigners. Estimated mother tongues are Spanish at 93.2% and Italian at 2.4%.

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook on Immigration and Foreign Policy 2025 (registered foreigners by nationality, registered foreigners by nationality and district, registered foreigners by status of stay), staying foreigners by nationality and age

The index of dissimilarity, the isolation index, and the location quotient are calculated from the open dataset.

Table 1.Key indicators and benchmarks, 2025Unit: people, organizations, index
2025
IndicatorsArgentinaAll registered foreignersRelative to total
Registered foreigners2241,604,920under 0.1% of the total
Districts of residence10025040.0% of the total
Index of dissimilarity (D)0.4700.280rank 80 of 107
Isolation index0.00000.045rank 87 of 107
Interaction with Koreans0.9630.955rank 20 of 107
ContinentLatin America5,017 (0.3% of the total)4.5% of those from Latin America

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook (registered foreigners by nationality), segregation indicators from the open dataset.

Note: the dissimilarity index D measures how far a nationality's distribution across districts differs from that of Korean nationals; 0 means the two distributions match and 1 means complete separation. Isolation is the probability that a member meets someone of the same nationality, and interaction the probability of meeting a Korean resident. In the All registered foreigners column the three indices treat all registered foreigners as one group and use the same formulas. In the Relative to total column, rank 1 is the highest value among nationalities with 100 or more registered foreigners that year; in the continent row that column gives this nationality's share of all registered foreigners from the continent.

Figure 1.Argentina nationals among registered foreigners, 2006–2025Unit: 10,000 persons

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook, each year.

Note: The vertical scale resets to the size of the selected nationality.

View as table
YearArgentinaVietnam
200611652,157
20079967,197
20089779,848
200910086,166
20109898,225
201179110,564
201278114,211
201374113,843
201489122,571
201592128,042
201698137,769
201798151,385
2018101170,707
2019117187,334
2020115181,415
2021155178,928
2022204196,883
2023216227,930
2024214261,581
2025224293,907
Table 2.Argentina nationality, top 10 districts, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
RankDistrictArgentina NationalityShare of local foreigners
1Seoul Yongsan-gu180.1
2Seoul Gwanak-gu130.1
3Seoul Jung-gu80.1
4Seoul Songpa-gu70.1
5Seoul Seodaemun-gu60.0
6Gyeonggi-do Pyeongtaek-si50.0
7Seoul Gangnam-gu50.1
8Seoul Gangseo-gu50.1
9Seoul Seocho-gu50.1
10Incheon Yeonsu-gu50.0

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook (registered foreigners by district and nationality).

Note: Nationwide, Argentina nationals make up 0.0% of all registered foreigners, so an area whose share is above that holds relatively many of them.

Table 3.10 districts with the highest location quotient, 2025Unit: people, ratio, %
2025
RankDistrictArgentina NationalityLocation quotient (LQ)Share of local foreigners
1Seoul Yongsan-gu1820.40.0
2Seoul Jung-gu815.60.0
3Gyeongsangnam-do Changnyeong-gun312.50.0
4Gyeonggi-do Dongducheon-si410.60.0
5Gyeonggi-do Gapyeong-gun27.40.0
6Seoul Gwanak-gu136.20.0
7Gyeongsangnam-do Namhae-gun15.60.0
8Busan Dong-gu25.50.0
9Gyeongsangbuk-do Gimcheon-si35.10.0
10Gyeongsangbuk-do Uljin-gun15.00.0

Source: Location quotient from the open dataset.

Note: the location quotient is the local share divided by the national share; above 1.5 counts as over-representation.

Table 4.By status of stay Argentina nationality, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Visa categoryPersonsShare
Marriage Migration(F6)7131.7
Student(D2)229.8
Other statuses(ETC)229.8
Other(G1)198.5
Working Holiday(H1)167.1
Visiting Cohabitation(F1)146.2
Permanent Residence(F5)114.9
General Trainee(D4)104.5
Other statuses3917.4

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook (registered foreigners by status of stay and nationality).

Note: The rows of this table add to 224, the whole of the Argentina nationality.

Table 5.Age and sex, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Age groupTotalMaleFemaleShare
0-44130.6
5-917982.4
10-142817114.0
15-192915144.1
20-245821378.2
25-29105446114.8
30-34140627819.8
35-39110446615.5
40-445731268.1
45-494426186.2
50-543520154.9
55-59251783.5
60+5625317.9

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook (staying foreigners by nationality and age).

Only this table counts all foreign residents, so it totals 708 rather than the 224 registered foreigners

Figure 2.Composition by age and sex, 2025Unit: %
2025

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook (staying foreigners by nationality and age).

Note: The bar length is the share each cell holds within the whole nationality. This figure alone uses staying foreigners, so its total differs from registered foreigners.

Figure 3.Change in status-of-stay composition, 2008–2025Unit: %

Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook, each year (registered foreigners by status of stay and nationality).

Note: The share each status holds within this nationality in that year. The five largest statuses in 2025 are drawn.

View as table
Year
20080.018.66.20.00.0
20090.020.09.00.00.0
20100.025.58.20.00.0
20110.022.812.70.00.0
20129.017.916.70.00.0
201313.512.216.20.00.0
201414.310.714.30.00.0
201513.613.612.50.00.0
201613.618.215.90.00.0
201714.316.37.10.00.0
201819.813.97.90.00.0
201923.16.813.79.46.0
202028.79.610.47.00.0
202127.19.016.10.00.0
202222.58.312.70.00.0
202324.19.39.35.66.5
202428.010.38.97.99.8
202531.79.89.88.57.1
Figure 4.Residential segregation and exposure over time, 2018–2025Unit: index
Indicators

Source: Segregation indicators from the open dataset.

Note: the dissimilarity index D measures how far a nationality's distribution across districts differs from that of Korean nationals, isolation is the probability that a member meets someone of the same nationality, and interaction the probability of meeting a Korean resident. The three run on different ranges, so they are selected one at a time.

View as table
YearIndex of dissimilarity (D)Isolation indexInteraction with Koreans
20180.6760.0000.969
20190.6300.0000.961
20200.5970.0000.970
20210.5950.0000.971
20220.5470.0000.969
20230.5920.0000.968
20240.5220.0000.963
20250.4700.0000.963
Table 6.Argentina nationality, mother-tongue compositionUnit: %
First languageShare
Spanish93.2
Italian2.4
Galician1.6

Source: Ethnologue 24th edition, first-language shares by country.

Note: the estimated demand on the language page is this share multiplied by the registered foreign population of each nationality. Shares below 0.5% are not listed, and a person who speaks more than one language is not distinguished.

Figure 5.By province, Argentina nationality, 2025Unit: persons
2025

Count range

    Note: The boundaries are shapes simplified for display and are drawn as pen lines. The fill values are the provincial totals from the yearbook and do not depend on the shapes.

    Source: MOJ Statistical Yearbook (registered foreigners by nationality and district), summed to the province level.

    View as table
    ProvinceArgentina NationalityShare of national
    Seoul10044.6
    Gyeonggi-do5122.8
    Incheon188.0
    Gyeongsangnam-do83.6
    Busan83.6
    Gyeongsangbuk-do73.1
    Daegu73.1
    Jeollabuk-do73.1
    Jeollanam-do41.8
    Chungcheongnam-do41.8
    Gangwon-do20.9
    Ulsan20.9
    Chungcheongbuk-do20.9
    Gwangju10.4
    Daejeon10.4
    Sejong10.4
    Jeju-do10.4