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

Gambia

People registered with Gambia nationality number 115, which is less than 0.1% of all registered foreigners and ranks 102 in size. Compared with 35 in 2015, 10 years earlier, that is an increase of about 228.6%. They live in 28 districts, and the largest counts are Seoul Yongsan-gu with 37, Gyeonggi-do Pyeongtaek-si with 19, and Seoul Dongjak-gu with 16. The index of dissimilarity (D) from Koreans is 0.845, the isolation index is 0, and interaction with Koreans is 0.95. The highest location quotient (LQ) is in Seoul Yongsan-gu at 82.2, where this nationality is 0% of the foreigners in that district. The continent of origin is Africa. The largest age group is 30-34 at 24.6%, and men are 90.2%. This value alone is based on staying foreigners. Estimated mother tongues are Mandinka at 44.2% and Fula at 19%.

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
IndicatorsGambiaAll registered foreignersRelative to total
Registered foreigners1151,604,920under 0.1% of the total
Districts of residence2825011.2% of the total
Index of dissimilarity (D)0.8450.280rank 2 of 107
Isolation index0.00010.045rank 54 of 107
Interaction with Koreans0.9500.955rank 81 of 107
ContinentAfrica24,473 (1.5% of the total)0.5% 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.Gambia 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
YearGambiaVietnam
2006152,157
2007167,197
2008179,848
2009286,166
2010398,225
20114110,564
20125114,211
20139113,843
201418122,571
201535128,042
201646137,769
201780151,385
2018122170,707
2019138187,334
2020138181,415
2021124178,928
2022129196,883
2023118227,930
2024118261,581
2025115293,907
Table 2.Gambia nationality, top 10 districts, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
RankDistrictGambia NationalityShare of local foreigners
1Seoul Yongsan-gu370.3
2Gyeonggi-do Pyeongtaek-si190.1
3Seoul Dongjak-gu160.1
4Seoul Gwanak-gu100.1
5Jeollabuk-do Buan-gun50.3
6Gyeonggi-do Paju-si30.0
7Incheon Yeonsu-gu20.0
8Jeollanam-do Yeongam-gun20.0
9Chungcheongnam-do Cheonan-si Dongnam-gu20.0
10Gyeonggi-do Goyang-si Deogyang-gu10.0

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

Note: Nationwide, Gambia 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
RankDistrictGambia NationalityLocation quotient (LQ)Share of local foreigners
1Seoul Yongsan-gu3782.20.0
2Jeollabuk-do Buan-gun547.50.0
3Seoul Dongjak-gu1619.30.0
4Jeollanam-do Yeongam-gun217.90.0
5Gyeonggi-do Pyeongtaek-si1914.00.0
6Seoul Gwanak-gu109.40.0
7Chungcheongnam-do Yesan-gun15.70.0
8Chungcheongbuk-do Jincheon-gun15.20.0
9Chungcheongnam-do Hongseong-gun14.50.0
10Seoul Jung-gu13.80.0

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 Gambia nationality, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Visa categoryPersonsShare
Other statuses(ETC)5043.5
Other(G1)3631.3
Student(D2)97.8
Job Seeker(D10)76.1
Dependent Family(F3)76.1
Marriage Migration(F6)43.5
Specially Designated Activities(E7)10.9
Residential(F2)10.9

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

Note: The rows of this table add to 115, the whole of the Gambia nationality.

Table 5.Age and sex, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Age groupTotalMaleFemaleShare
0-45504.1
5-91100.8
10-140000.0
15-190000.0
20-240000.0
25-292218418.0
30-343028224.6
35-392924523.8
40-441413111.5
45-491414011.5
50-544403.3
55-592201.6
60+1100.8

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

Only this table counts all foreign residents, so it totals 122 rather than the 115 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
20090.00.0100.00.00.0
20100.033.333.30.00.0
20110.050.025.00.00.0
20120.040.040.00.00.0
20130.055.611.111.10.0
20140.055.627.85.65.6
20150.068.614.30.05.7
20160.076.115.20.00.0
20171.382.510.01.30.0
20180.885.26.61.60.0
20198.079.08.00.70.0
202016.771.06.51.40.0
202121.068.56.51.60.0
202233.349.67.82.30.0
202338.143.25.93.41.7
202441.537.310.24.21.7
202543.531.37.86.16.1
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
20180.8920.0000.950
20190.8200.0000.959
20200.8230.0000.965
20210.8160.0000.965
20220.8390.0000.961
20230.8370.0000.954
20240.8370.0000.952
20250.8450.0000.950
Table 6.Gambia nationality, mother-tongue compositionUnit: %
First languageShare
Mandinka44.2
Fula19.0
Gambian Wolof15.8
Serahule6.5
Jola5.9
Serer2.6
Mandjak1.9
Guinea-Bissau Creole1.1

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, Gambia 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
    ProvinceGambia NationalityShare of national
    Seoul6758.3
    Gyeonggi-do2521.7
    Jeollabuk-do87.0
    Chungcheongnam-do43.5
    Gyeongsangnam-do21.7
    Incheon21.7
    Jeollanam-do21.7
    Chungcheongbuk-do21.7
    Gyeongsangbuk-do10.9
    Gwangju10.9
    Sejong10.9