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

Ethiopia

People registered with Ethiopia nationality number 1,591, which is 0.1% of all registered foreigners and ranks 40 in size. Compared with 504 in 2015, 10 years earlier, that is an increase of about 215.7%. They live in 128 districts, and the largest counts are Seoul Dongjak-gu with 241, Chungcheongbuk-do Jincheon-gun with 99, and Daejeon Yuseong-gu with 90. The index of dissimilarity (D) from Koreans is 0.568, the isolation index is 0, and interaction with Koreans is 0.957. The highest location quotient (LQ) is in Chungcheongbuk-do Jincheon-gun at 36.8, where this nationality is 0.1% of the foreigners in that district. The continent of origin is Africa. The largest age group is 30-34 at 22.6%, and men are 61.7%. This value alone is based on staying foreigners. Estimated mother tongues are Oromo at 34.6% and Amharic at 30.1%.

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
IndicatorsEthiopiaAll registered foreignersRelative to total
Registered foreigners1,5911,604,9200.1% of the total
Districts of residence12825051.2% of the total
Index of dissimilarity (D)0.5680.280rank 56 of 107
Isolation index0.00020.045rank 37 of 107
Interaction with Koreans0.9570.955rank 55 of 107
ContinentAfrica24,473 (1.5% of the total)6.5% of those from Africa

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.Ethiopia 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
YearEthiopiaVietnam
20066352,157
20076967,197
20088879,848
20099586,166
201011498,225
2011173110,564
2012242114,211
2013391113,843
2014448122,571
2015504128,042
2016625137,769
2017747151,385
2018832170,707
2019902187,334
2020947181,415
20211,005178,928
20221,117196,883
20231,322227,930
20241,445261,581
20251,591293,907
Table 2.Ethiopia nationality, top 10 districts, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
RankDistrictEthiopia NationalityShare of local foreigners
1Seoul Dongjak-gu2412.0
2Chungcheongbuk-do Jincheon-gun991.1
3Daejeon Yuseong-gu901.0
4Seoul Yongsan-gu660.5
5Gyeongsangbuk-do Gyeongsan-si610.3
6Incheon Yeonsu-gu530.3
7Seoul Seongbuk-gu520.3
8Chungcheongnam-do Asan-si470.2
9Chungcheongbuk-do Cheongju-si Cheongwon-gu340.4
10Gyeonggi-do Suwon-si Jangan-gu330.4

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

Note: Nationwide, Ethiopia nationals make up 0.1% 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
RankDistrictEthiopia NationalityLocation quotient (LQ)Share of local foreigners
1Chungcheongbuk-do Jincheon-gun9936.80.1
2Seoul Dongjak-gu24120.90.1
3Seoul Yongsan-gu6610.50.0
4Daejeon Yuseong-gu907.90.0
5Gyeonggi-do Pocheon-si337.60.0
6Gyeongsangbuk-do Gyeongsan-si617.40.0
7Chungcheongbuk-do Cheongju-si Cheongwon-gu345.80.0
8Chungcheongnam-do Asan-si474.20.0
9Busan Geumjeong-gu274.20.0
10Incheon Yeonsu-gu534.20.0

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 Ethiopia nationality, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Visa categoryPersonsShare
Other(G1)48430.4
Residential(F2)29018.2
Student(D2)26516.7
Other statuses(ETC)20212.7
Dependent Family(F3)1066.7
Permanent Residence(F5)543.4
Researcher(E3)352.2
General Trainee(D4)332.1
Other statuses1227.7

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

Note: The rows of this table add to 1,591, the whole of the Ethiopia nationality.

Table 5.Age and sex, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Age groupTotalMaleFemaleShare
0-411153586.6
5-99245475.5
10-143115161.8
15-192310131.4
20-2410353506.1
25-2925314011315.1
30-3437924013922.6
35-393122169618.6
40-442181516713.0
45-499567285.7
50-54292091.7
55-59131120.8
60+181351.1

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

Only this table counts all foreign residents, so it totals 1,677 rather than the 1,591 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
200834.110.231.84.510.2
200925.315.844.22.14.2
201020.214.043.04.47.0
201115.011.641.62.99.8
201214.98.744.24.19.5
201325.66.637.63.18.4
201416.015.042.84.46.9
201517.315.645.14.64.6
201623.514.143.93.94.1
201721.614.736.46.85.5
201823.215.732.67.35.8
201923.716.129.69.95.8
202018.815.727.214.77.5
202117.915.726.915.98.2
202219.614.623.216.38.0
202329.815.020.113.16.6
202429.416.718.313.67.0
202530.418.216.712.76.7
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
20140.6860.0000.966
20150.6590.0000.967
20160.6670.0000.965
20170.6410.0000.965
20180.6150.0000.963
20190.6120.0000.963
20200.5960.0000.967
20210.6040.0000.968
20220.6040.0000.966
20230.6110.0000.964
20240.5820.0000.960
20250.5680.0000.957
Table 6.Ethiopia nationality, mother-tongue compositionUnit: %
First languageShare
Oromo34.6
Amharic30.1
Somali6.4
Tigrinya6.0
Sidama4.1
Gurage3.6
Wolaytta2.2
Afar1.7

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, Ethiopia 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
    ProvinceEthiopia NationalityShare of national
    Seoul47830.0
    Gyeonggi-do28317.8
    Chungcheongbuk-do16210.2
    Incheon1318.2
    Daejeon1247.8
    Gyeongsangbuk-do986.2
    Chungcheongnam-do644.0
    Busan603.8
    Daegu382.4
    Ulsan322.0
    Jeollabuk-do322.0
    Gangwon-do291.8
    Gyeongsangnam-do281.8
    Gwangju231.4
    Jeju-do60.4
    Sejong20.1
    Jeollanam-do10.1