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

Iraq

People registered with Iraq nationality number 565, which is less than 0.1% of all registered foreigners and ranks 68 in size. Compared with 302 in 2015, 10 years earlier, that is an increase of about 87.1%. They live in 80 districts, and the largest counts are Incheon Seo-gu with 109, Gyeonggi-do Gimpo-si with 78, and Seoul Yongsan-gu with 75. The index of dissimilarity (D) from Koreans is 0.733, the isolation index is 0, and interaction with Koreans is 0.957. The highest location quotient (LQ) is in Seoul Yongsan-gu at 33.8, where this nationality is 0% of the foreigners in that district. The continent of origin is West Asia. The largest age group is 25-29 at 19%, and men are 74.2%. This value alone is based on staying foreigners. Estimated mother tongues are Arabic at 67.8% and Kurdish at 21.8%.

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
IndicatorsIraqAll registered foreignersRelative to total
Registered foreigners5651,604,920under 0.1% of the total
Districts of residence8025032.0% of the total
Index of dissimilarity (D)0.7330.280rank 16 of 107
Isolation index0.00010.045rank 54 of 107
Interaction with Koreans0.9570.955rank 53 of 107
ContinentWest Asia11,391 (0.7% of the total)5.0% of those from West 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.Iraq 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
YearIraqVietnam
20066852,157
200714267,197
200817579,848
200920786,166
201022098,225
2011203110,564
2012192114,211
2013195113,843
2014253122,571
2015302128,042
2016331137,769
2017331151,385
2018340170,707
2019337187,334
2020320181,415
2021364178,928
2022433196,883
2023497227,930
2024537261,581
2025565293,907
Table 2.Iraq nationality, top 10 districts, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
RankDistrictIraq NationalityShare of local foreigners
1Incheon Seo-gu1090.7
2Gyeonggi-do Gimpo-si780.3
3Seoul Yongsan-gu750.6
4Incheon Yeonsu-gu550.3
5Gwangju Seo-gu230.8
6Seoul Dongdaemun-gu210.1
7Gyeonggi-do Dongducheon-si140.3
8Gyeonggi-do Paju-si130.1
9Gyeongsangnam-do Gimhae-si90.0
10Jeollanam-do Yeongam-gun90.1

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

Note: Nationwide, Iraq 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
RankDistrictIraq NationalityLocation quotient (LQ)Share of local foreigners
1Seoul Yongsan-gu7533.80.0
2Jeollanam-do Yeongam-gun916.40.0
3Incheon Seo-gu10915.20.0
4Gyeonggi-do Dongducheon-si1414.70.0
5Gyeonggi-do Gimpo-si7814.60.0
6Incheon Yeonsu-gu5512.20.0
7Gyeonggi-do Yeoncheon-gun510.70.0
8Gwangju Seo-gu237.60.0
9Jeollabuk-do Namwon-si67.30.0
10Seoul Dongdaemun-gu215.50.0

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 Iraq nationality, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Visa categoryPersonsShare
Other(G1)17831.5
Dependent Family(F3)11921.1
Corporate Investment(D8)7613.5
Other statuses(ETC)6812.0
Marriage Migration(F6)213.7
Student(D2)203.5
General Trainee(D4)193.4
Residential(F2)183.2
Other statuses468.1

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

Note: The rows of this table add to 565, the whole of the Iraq nationality.

Table 5.Age and sex, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Age groupTotalMaleFemaleShare
0-43816225.0
5-94118235.4
10-143422124.5
15-193617194.8
20-24103891413.7
25-291431182519.0
30-34105782713.9
35-397252209.6
40-44473986.2
45-496252108.2
50-54342774.5
55-59222022.9
60+161152.1

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

Only this table counts all foreign residents, so it totals 753 rather than the 565 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
20082.926.953.11.10.0
20091.433.855.11.00.0
20101.833.650.01.40.0
20113.937.442.91.50.0
20124.242.734.42.60.0
20134.645.19.72.60.0
201414.144.27.62.80.0
201525.637.07.13.00.0
201623.736.06.73.00.0
201718.733.26.611.50.0
201816.530.07.917.60.0
201919.628.27.415.70.0
202020.323.18.118.40.0
202126.422.38.015.70.0
202231.221.08.513.23.0
202332.620.310.314.33.2
202433.320.912.312.83.5
202531.521.113.512.03.7
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
20140.8030.0000.975
20150.7870.0000.974
20160.8040.0000.970
20170.7810.0000.967
20180.7880.0000.962
20190.7680.0000.963
20200.7820.0000.966
20210.7310.0000.968
20220.7010.0000.966
20230.7300.0000.960
20240.7270.0000.959
20250.7330.0000.957
Table 6.Iraq nationality, mother-tongue compositionUnit: %
First languageShare
Arabic67.8
Kurdish21.8
Azerbaijani6.0
Persian/Farsi1.2
Turkmen1.2
Shabak0.6

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, Iraq 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
    ProvinceIraq NationalityShare of national
    Incheon17030.1
    Gyeonggi-do15828.0
    Seoul11420.2
    Gwangju234.1
    Chungcheongnam-do223.9
    Gyeongsangnam-do132.3
    Jeollanam-do132.3
    Jeollabuk-do101.8
    Chungcheongbuk-do101.8
    Busan81.4
    Daejeon71.2
    Gyeongsangbuk-do61.1
    Gangwon-do40.7
    Sejong30.5
    Ulsan30.5
    Daegu10.2