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

Bhutan

People registered with Bhutan nationality number 38, which is less than 0.1% of all registered foreigners and ranks 139 in size. Compared with 10 in 2015, 10 years earlier, that is an increase of about 280%. They live in 20 districts, and the largest counts are Seoul Gwanak-gu with 7, Seoul Seongbuk-gu with 7, and Gyeonggi-do Gimpo-si with 3. The largest age group is 35-39 at 23.7%, and men are 34.2%. This value alone is based on staying foreigners. Estimated mother tongues are Dzongkha at 40.3% and Tshangla at 21.6%.

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
IndicatorsBhutanAll registered foreignersRelative to total
Registered foreigners381,604,920under 0.1% of the total
Districts of residence202508.0% of the total
Index of dissimilarity (D)-0.280-
Isolation index-0.045-
Interaction with Koreans-0.955-
Continent---

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.Bhutan 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
YearBhutanVietnam
2006252,157
20071367,197
20081979,848
2009886,166
20101098,225
201112110,564
201218114,211
201315113,843
20147122,571
201510128,042
201618137,769
201720151,385
201818170,707
201928187,334
202021181,415
202132178,928
202242196,883
202338227,930
202436261,581
202538293,907
Table 2.Bhutan nationality, top 10 districts, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
RankDistrictBhutan NationalityShare of local foreigners
1Seoul Gwanak-gu70.0
2Seoul Seongbuk-gu70.0
3Gyeonggi-do Gimpo-si30.0
4Gyeonggi-do Anyang-si Dongan-gu30.2
5Daejeon Yuseong-gu20.0
6Incheon Jung-gu20.0
7Gyeonggi-do Ansan-si Danwon-gu10.0
8Gyeongsangnam-do Jinju-si10.0
9Gyeongsangbuk-do Andong-si10.0
10Gyeongsangbuk-do Pohang-si Buk-gu10.0

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

Note: Nationwide, Bhutan nationality is 18.3% of all registered foreigners, so a district where the share among its foreigners is above this has relatively many of them.

Table 3.10 districts with the highest location quotient, 2025Unit: people, ratio, %
RankDistrictBhutan NationalityLocation quotient (LQ)Share of local foreigners

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 Bhutan nationality, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Visa categoryPersonsShare
Student(D2)923.7
Marriage Migration(F6)821.1
Other statuses(ETC)821.1
General Trainee(D4)410.5
Permanent Residence(F5)37.9
Specially Designated Activities(E7)25.3
Residential(F2)25.3
Other(G1)25.3

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

Note: The rows of this table add to 38, the whole of the Bhutan nationality.

Table 5.Age and sex, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Age groupTotalMaleFemaleShare
0-42205.3
5-90000.0
10-141012.6
15-190000.0
20-2480821.1
25-2951413.2
30-3473418.4
35-3994523.7
40-4452313.2
45-490000.0
50-540000.0
55-591102.6
60+0000.0

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

Only this table counts all foreign residents, so it totals 38 rather than the 38 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
200821.10.00.073.70.0
200975.00.00.012.50.0
201090.00.00.00.00.0
201166.70.00.08.30.0
201255.60.00.033.30.0
201333.30.00.046.70.0
201457.10.00.028.60.0
201560.00.00.020.00.0
201650.00.00.016.70.0
201745.010.00.015.00.0
201827.822.20.016.70.0
201939.314.310.721.40.0
202023.823.823.89.50.0
202134.421.912.515.63.1
202238.116.716.711.90.0
202334.215.821.15.35.3
202422.222.211.111.15.6
202523.721.121.110.57.9
Figure 4.Residential segregation and exposure over time, Unit: 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
Table 6.Bhutan nationality, mother-tongue compositionUnit: %
First languageShare
Dzongkha40.3
Tshangla21.6
Khengkha6.6
Bengali6.1
Nepali4.4
Chocangacakha4.0
Dzalakha2.9
Bumthangkha2.6

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, Bhutan 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
    ProvinceBhutan NationalityShare of national
    Seoul1847.4
    Gyeonggi-do718.4
    Incheon410.5
    Gyeongsangbuk-do25.3
    Daejeon25.3
    Gyeongsangnam-do12.6
    Jeollanam-do12.6
    Jeollabuk-do12.6
    Chungcheongnam-do12.6
    Chungcheongbuk-do12.6