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Registered foreigners are counted across 192 nationalities.

Estonia

People registered with Estonia nationality number 55, which is less than 0.1% of all registered foreigners and ranks 129 in size. Compared with 12 in 2015, 10 years earlier, that is an increase of about 358.3%. They live in 38 districts, and the largest counts are Seoul Jung-gu with 8, Seoul Gwanak-gu with 3, and Seoul Mapo-gu with 3. The largest age group is 25-29 at 30.9%, and men are 32.1%. This value alone is based on staying foreigners. Estimated mother tongues are Estonian at 68.3% and Russian at 25%.

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
IndicatorsEstoniaAll registered foreignersRelative to total
Registered foreigners551,604,920under 0.1% of the total
Districts of residence3825015.2% 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.Estonia 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
YearEstoniaVietnam
2006352,157
2007167,197
2008479,848
2009186,166
2010598,225
201110110,564
201211114,211
201311113,843
201412122,571
201512128,042
201615137,769
201715151,385
201821170,707
201932187,334
202032181,415
202135178,928
202242196,883
202353227,930
202458261,581
202555293,907
Table 2.Estonia nationality, top 10 districts, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
RankDistrictEstonia NationalityShare of local foreigners
1Seoul Jung-gu80.1
2Seoul Gwanak-gu30.0
3Seoul Mapo-gu30.0
4Seoul Yeongdeungpo-gu30.0
5Seoul Dongdaemun-gu20.0
6Seoul Seodaemun-gu20.0
7Seoul Yongsan-gu20.0
8Seoul Jongno-gu20.0
9Gyeonggi-do Goyang-si Deogyang-gu10.0
10Gyeonggi-do Namyangju-si10.0

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

Note: Nationwide, Estonia 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, %
RankDistrictEstonia 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 Estonia nationality, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Visa categoryPersonsShare
Student(D2)1527.3
Marriage Migration(F6)1221.8
Other statuses(ETC)814.5
Specially Designated Activities(E7)59.1
General Trainee(D4)35.5
Arts & Entertainment(E6)35.5
Trade Management(D9)23.6
Residential(F2)23.6
Other statuses59.1

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

Note: The rows of this table add to 55, the whole of the Estonia nationality.

Table 5.Age and sex, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Age groupTotalMaleFemaleShare
0-40000.0
5-90000.0
10-142112.5
15-194134.9
20-241611519.8
25-292552030.9
30-341910923.5
35-394134.9
40-443213.7
45-493213.7
50-544224.9
55-591101.2
60+0000.0

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

Only this table counts all foreign residents, so it totals 81 rather than the 55 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
20080.00.00.00.00.0
20090.00.00.00.00.0
201020.00.00.00.040.0
201120.00.00.010.020.0
201227.30.00.09.118.2
201354.50.00.09.19.1
201441.78.30.00.033.3
201566.78.30.00.08.3
201653.36.70.00.026.7
201753.313.30.00.013.3
201847.69.50.00.023.8
201956.36.36.33.115.6
202040.66.315.66.318.8
202131.411.420.08.65.7
202245.211.916.74.89.5
202339.613.217.03.89.4
202436.213.815.55.212.1
202527.321.814.59.15.5
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.Estonia nationality, mother-tongue compositionUnit: %
First languageShare
Estonian68.3
Russian25.0
Võro5.7
Ukrainian0.5

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, Estonia 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
    ProvinceEstonia NationalityShare of national
    Seoul3461.8
    Gyeonggi-do712.7
    Busan47.3
    Gyeongsangbuk-do23.6
    Ulsan23.6
    Incheon23.6
    Gyeongsangnam-do11.8
    Daegu11.8
    Daejeon11.8
    Chungcheongbuk-do11.8