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

Hong Kong

People registered with Hong Kong nationality number 2,285, which is 0.1% of all registered foreigners and ranks 35 in size. Compared with 1,403 in 2015, 10 years earlier, that is an increase of about 62.9%. They live in 152 districts, and the largest counts are Seoul Seodaemun-gu with 227, Seoul Mapo-gu with 169, and Seoul Dongdaemun-gu with 147. The index of dissimilarity (D) from Koreans is 0.504, the isolation index is 0, and interaction with Koreans is 0.961. The highest location quotient (LQ) is in Seoul Seodaemun-gu at 17, where this nationality is 0.1% of the foreigners in that district. The continent of origin is East Asia. The largest age group is 20-24 at 13.8%, and men are 35.4%. This value alone is based on staying foreigners. Estimated mother tongues are Cantonese at 90.5% and English at 4.3%.

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
IndicatorsHong KongAll registered foreignersRelative to total
Registered foreigners2,2851,604,9200.1% of the total
Districts of residence15225060.8% of the total
Index of dissimilarity (D)0.5040.280rank 75 of 107
Isolation index0.00020.045rank 37 of 107
Interaction with Koreans0.9610.955rank 34 of 107
ContinentEast Asia568,673 (35.4% of the total)0.4% of those from East Asia

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.Hong Kong 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
YearHong KongVietnam
200630452,157
200729567,197
200829879,848
200936786,166
201043698,225
2011551110,564
2012710114,211
2013969113,843
20141,293122,571
20151,403128,042
20161,595137,769
20171,707151,385
20181,870170,707
20191,924187,334
20201,797181,415
20211,860178,928
20222,126196,883
20232,256227,930
20242,224261,581
20252,285293,907
Table 2.Hong Kong nationality, top 10 districts, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
RankDistrictHong Kong NationalityShare of local foreigners
1Seoul Seodaemun-gu2271.4
2Seoul Mapo-gu1691.4
3Seoul Dongdaemun-gu1470.7
4Seoul Jung-gu730.7
5Seoul Gwangjin-gu680.4
6Seoul Yeongdeungpo-gu680.3
7Jeju-do Jeju-si620.3
8Seoul Gwanak-gu590.3
9Seoul Seongbuk-gu550.4
10Jeju-do Seogwipo-si530.5

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

Note: Nationwide, Hong Kong 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
RankDistrictHong Kong NationalityLocation quotient (LQ)Share of local foreigners
1Seoul Seodaemun-gu22717.00.1
2Seoul Jung-gu7313.90.1
3Seoul Mapo-gu16910.60.0
4Seoul Dongdaemun-gu1479.50.0
5Jeju-do Seogwipo-si536.60.0
6Seoul Jongno-gu386.20.0
7Seoul Yongsan-gu525.80.0
8Seoul Gwangjin-gu684.60.0
9Incheon Jung-gu354.50.0
10Seoul Yeongdeungpo-gu684.10.0

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 Hong Kong nationality, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Visa categoryPersonsShare
Marriage Migration(F6)69030.2
Student(D2)44319.4
Residential(F2)31914.0
Permanent Residence(F5)1697.4
Specially Designated Activities(E7)1637.1
General Trainee(D4)1426.2
Job Seeker(D10)883.9
Dependent Family(F3)763.3
Other statuses1958.5

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

Note: The rows of this table add to 2,285, the whole of the Hong Kong nationality.

Table 5.Age and sex, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Age groupTotalMaleFemaleShare
0-42421301121.7
5-98764204566.0
10-148823675156.0
15-191,0713077647.3
20-242,0115981,41313.8
25-291,8065381,26812.4
30-341,5634821,08110.7
35-391,3894569339.5
40-441,3374578809.2
45-491,1264396877.7
50-548163304865.6
55-595432323113.7
60+9244015236.3

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

Only this table counts all foreign residents, so it totals 14,586 rather than the 2,285 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
20080.08.721.16.721.1
20090.014.221.07.917.2
20100.018.120.48.714.7
20110.019.619.28.712.7
201211.016.86.58.712.1
201313.715.43.26.99.0
201413.718.14.65.37.1
201514.219.76.95.17.1
201614.723.68.04.66.8
201717.022.27.84.67.3
201819.323.07.74.77.8
201922.322.910.05.66.4
202028.120.110.96.55.7
202130.421.18.66.96.5
202229.622.39.56.36.4
202329.220.412.15.97.1
202430.321.012.86.67.0
202530.219.414.07.47.1
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
20140.6260.0000.972
20150.6410.0000.969
20160.6100.0000.967
20170.5960.0000.967
20180.5830.0000.966
20190.5580.0000.965
20200.5290.0000.971
20210.5030.0000.971
20220.5060.0000.968
20230.5060.0000.966
20240.4930.0000.963
20250.5040.0000.961
Table 6.Hong Kong nationality, mother-tongue compositionUnit: %
First languageShare
Cantonese90.5
English4.3
Chinese4.2

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, Hong Kong 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
    ProvinceHong Kong NationalityShare of national
    Seoul1,36259.6
    Gyeonggi-do44919.6
    Incheon1426.2
    Jeju-do1155.0
    Busan592.6
    Daejeon351.5
    Daegu170.7
    Gyeongsangnam-do160.7
    Gyeongsangbuk-do160.7
    Chungcheongnam-do150.7
    Gangwon-do140.6
    Chungcheongbuk-do130.6
    Gwangju90.4
    Jeollabuk-do90.4
    Sejong60.3
    Ulsan50.2
    Jeollanam-do30.1