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

Ireland

People registered with Ireland nationality number 568, which is less than 0.1% of all registered foreigners and ranks 67 in size. Compared with 708 in 2015, 10 years earlier, that is a decrease of about 19.8%. They live in 138 districts, and the largest counts are Seoul Yongsan-gu with 39, Incheon Yeonsu-gu with 23, and Seoul Gwanak-gu with 18. The index of dissimilarity (D) from Koreans is 0.403, the isolation index is 0, and interaction with Koreans is 0.967. The highest location quotient (LQ) is in Seoul Yongsan-gu at 17.5, where this nationality is 0% of the foreigners in that district. The continent of origin is Europe. The largest age group is 25-29 at 16.5%, and men are 64.2%. This value alone is based on staying foreigners. Estimated mother tongues are English at 95.5% and Irish at 3.1%.

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
IndicatorsIrelandAll registered foreignersRelative to total
Registered foreigners5681,604,920under 0.1% of the total
Districts of residence13825055.2% of the total
Index of dissimilarity (D)0.4030.280rank 94 of 107
Isolation index0.00000.045rank 87 of 107
Interaction with Koreans0.9670.955rank 4 of 107
ContinentEurope48,565 (3.0% of the total)1.2% of those from Europe

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.Ireland 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
YearIrelandVietnam
200643752,157
200747267,197
200843879,848
200956786,166
201072598,225
2011906110,564
2012886114,211
2013874113,843
2014720122,571
2015708128,042
2016633137,769
2017580151,385
2018569170,707
2019598187,334
2020560181,415
2021611178,928
2022644196,883
2023617227,930
2024593261,581
2025568293,907
Table 2.Ireland nationality, top 10 districts, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
RankDistrictIreland NationalityShare of local foreigners
1Seoul Yongsan-gu390.3
2Incheon Yeonsu-gu230.1
3Seoul Gwanak-gu180.1
4Seoul Jongno-gu170.1
5Seoul Seongbuk-gu140.1
6Daegu Buk-gu130.2
7Jeju-do Seogwipo-si130.1
8Gyeonggi-do Hwaseong-si120.0
9Seoul Gangnam-gu120.2
10Seoul Gwangjin-gu120.1

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

Note: Nationwide, Ireland 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
RankDistrictIreland NationalityLocation quotient (LQ)Share of local foreigners
1Seoul Yongsan-gu3917.50.0
2Seoul Jongno-gu1711.30.0
3Jeju-do Seogwipo-si136.60.0
4Incheon Yeonsu-gu235.10.0
5Busan Suyeong-gu84.30.0
6Gyeongsangnam-do Uiryeong-gun13.70.0
7Seoul Gwanak-gu183.40.0
8Gangwon-do Yangyang-gun13.30.0
9Seoul Gwangjin-gu123.30.0
10Seoul Jung-gu43.10.0

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 Ireland nationality, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Visa categoryPersonsShare
Foreign Language Instructor(E2)18833.1
Marriage Migration(F6)17130.1
Specially Designated Activities(E7)346.0
Student(D2)295.1
Residential(F2)284.9
Permanent Residence(F5)284.9
Other statuses(ETC)203.5
Dependent Family(F3)173.0
Other statuses539.3

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

Note: The rows of this table add to 568, the whole of the Ireland nationality.

Table 5.Age and sex, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Age groupTotalMaleFemaleShare
0-4161151.9
5-9191092.3
10-1414681.7
15-1910551.2
20-247433419.0
25-29136577916.5
30-34121586314.7
35-391271002715.4
40-44120982214.6
45-497460149.0
50-54443955.3
55-59261973.2
60+4232105.1

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

Only this table counts all foreign residents, so it totals 823 rather than the 568 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
200868.70.03.20.07.8
200973.70.01.91.47.2
201076.00.01.90.07.9
201177.70.01.90.06.8
201274.55.32.40.02.1
201368.28.12.50.00.0
201459.910.43.80.00.0
201556.612.34.00.00.0
201650.415.04.90.00.0
201746.018.85.20.00.0
201843.819.96.02.50.0
201941.320.25.93.20.0
202039.523.86.33.20.0
202140.623.16.44.40.0
202238.524.26.26.40.0
202338.126.77.04.13.2
202433.628.36.66.94.2
202533.130.16.05.14.9
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
20140.4070.0000.976
20150.4070.0000.974
20160.4020.0000.974
20170.4040.0000.975
20180.3990.0000.973
20190.4010.0000.973
20200.4090.0000.976
20210.3770.0000.976
20220.4010.0000.974
20230.3980.0000.972
20240.3840.0000.970
20250.4030.0000.967
Table 6.Ireland nationality, mother-tongue compositionUnit: %
First languageShare
English95.5
Irish3.1
Shelta0.6

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, Ireland 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
    ProvinceIreland NationalityShare of national
    Seoul23140.7
    Gyeonggi-do11019.4
    Incheon427.4
    Busan366.3
    Daegu346.0
    Jeju-do213.7
    Gyeongsangnam-do193.3
    Gwangju122.1
    Jeollabuk-do101.8
    Daejeon91.6
    Chungcheongbuk-do91.6
    Gangwon-do81.4
    Chungcheongnam-do71.2
    Gyeongsangbuk-do61.1
    Jeollanam-do61.1
    Sejong50.9
    Ulsan30.5