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

Ecuador

People registered with Ecuador nationality number 325, which is less than 0.1% of all registered foreigners and ranks 79 in size. Compared with 187 in 2015, 10 years earlier, that is an increase of about 73.8%. They live in 82 districts, and the largest counts are Jeollanam-do Mokpo-si with 62, Seoul Jongno-gu with 27, and Seoul Gwanak-gu with 16. The index of dissimilarity (D) from Koreans is 0.571, the isolation index is 0, and interaction with Koreans is 0.963. The highest location quotient (LQ) is in Jeollanam-do Mokpo-si at 48.7, 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 19.4%, and men are 47.9%. This value alone is based on staying foreigners. Estimated mother tongues are Spanish at 92.6% and Chimborazo Highland Quichua at 4.6%.

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
IndicatorsEcuadorAll registered foreignersRelative to total
Registered foreigners3251,604,920under 0.1% of the total
Districts of residence8225032.8% of the total
Index of dissimilarity (D)0.5710.280rank 54 of 107
Isolation index0.00010.045rank 54 of 107
Interaction with Koreans0.9630.955rank 18 of 107
ContinentLatin America5,017 (0.3% of the total)6.5% 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.Ecuador 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
YearEcuadorVietnam
20063152,157
20073867,197
20084479,848
20094886,166
20104798,225
201166110,564
201260114,211
201379113,843
2014135122,571
2015187128,042
2016211137,769
2017225151,385
2018233170,707
2019239187,334
2020206181,415
2021211178,928
2022247196,883
2023240227,930
2024311261,581
2025325293,907
Table 2.Ecuador nationality, top 10 districts, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
RankDistrictEcuador NationalityShare of local foreigners
1Jeollanam-do Mokpo-si621.3
2Seoul Jongno-gu270.2
3Seoul Gwanak-gu160.1
4Seoul Seodaemun-gu160.1
5Seoul Dongdaemun-gu90.0
6Seoul Seongbuk-gu90.1
7Seoul Yongsan-gu90.1
8Incheon Jung-gu80.1
9Gangwon-do Goseong-gun70.3
10Gyeongsangnam-do Jinju-si70.1

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

Note: Nationwide, Ecuador 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
RankDistrictEcuador NationalityLocation quotient (LQ)Share of local foreigners
1Jeollanam-do Mokpo-si6248.70.0
2Gangwon-do Goseong-gun741.40.0
3Seoul Jongno-gu2731.30.0
4Seoul Seodaemun-gu168.50.0
5Incheon Jung-gu87.20.0
6Seoul Yongsan-gu97.10.0
7Seoul Gwanak-gu165.30.0
8Seoul Dongdaemun-gu94.10.0
9Seoul Seongbuk-gu93.40.0
10Gyeongsangnam-do Jinju-si73.30.0

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 Ecuador nationality, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Visa categoryPersonsShare
Other statuses(ETC)10030.8
Student(D2)7021.5
Marriage Migration(F6)5216.0
Residential(F2)164.9
General Trainee(D4)154.6
Job Seeker(D10)113.4
Arts & Entertainment(E6)113.4
Specially Designated Activities(E7)103.1
Other statuses4012.3

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

Note: The rows of this table add to 325, the whole of the Ecuador nationality.

Table 5.Age and sex, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Age groupTotalMaleFemaleShare
0-44221.0
5-911832.7
10-147341.7
15-1911382.7
20-24418339.9
25-2979265319.1
30-3480374319.4
35-3955352013.3
40-4445321310.9
45-493015157.3
50-54201284.8
55-597521.7
60+2312115.6

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

Only this table counts all foreign residents, so it totals 413 rather than the 325 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
20089.122.70.06.82.3
200912.512.50.06.36.3
201012.812.80.08.54.3
201110.616.70.07.64.5
201210.011.75.03.311.7
20136.313.95.12.517.7
20145.234.85.20.015.7
20153.150.94.30.010.4
20164.960.36.00.08.2
201712.951.65.30.06.7
201813.748.17.30.03.9
201913.445.69.20.04.2
202018.939.312.60.06.3
202119.433.618.00.07.6
202219.832.016.60.08.9
202311.329.218.83.310.8
202431.821.915.13.96.4
202530.821.516.04.94.6
Figure 4.Residential segregation and exposure over time, 2014–2025Unit: 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
20140.7070.0000.973
20150.7240.0000.973
20160.7180.0000.971
20170.6990.0000.969
20180.6620.0000.966
20190.6450.0000.966
20200.6500.0000.970
20210.5930.0000.971
20220.5610.0000.965
20230.5520.0000.967
20240.5850.0000.967
20250.5710.0000.963
Table 6.Ecuador nationality, mother-tongue compositionUnit: %
First languageShare
Spanish92.6
Chimborazo Highland Quichua4.6
Imbabura Highland Quichua0.9
Cañar Highland Quichua0.6

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, Ecuador 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
    ProvinceEcuador NationalityShare of national
    Seoul12438.2
    Jeollanam-do6219.1
    Gyeonggi-do5015.4
    Incheon175.2
    Gyeongsangnam-do144.3
    Gangwon-do92.8
    Daejeon92.8
    Jeollabuk-do82.5
    Daegu72.2
    Chungcheongnam-do61.8
    Busan51.5
    Chungcheongbuk-do51.5
    Sejong30.9
    Gwangju20.6
    Jeju-do20.6
    Gyeongsangbuk-do10.3
    Ulsan10.3