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

Latvia

People registered with Latvia nationality number 87, which is less than 0.1% of all registered foreigners and ranks 113 in size. Compared with 35 in 2015, 10 years earlier, that is an increase of about 148.6%. They live in 50 districts, and the largest counts are Ulsan Dong-gu with 9, Seoul Yongsan-gu with 8, and Seoul Gwanak-gu with 4. The largest age group is 20-24 at 20.9%, and men are 34.5%. This value alone is based on staying foreigners. Estimated mother tongues are Standard Latvian at 60.9% and Russian at 24.3%.

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
IndicatorsLatviaAll registered foreignersRelative to total
Registered foreigners871,604,920under 0.1% of the total
Districts of residence5025020.0% of the total
Index of dissimilarity (D)-0.280-
Isolation index-0.045-
Interaction with Koreans-0.955-
Continent---

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.Latvia 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
YearLatviaVietnam
20061852,157
20071667,197
20081679,848
20092586,166
20102098,225
201121110,564
201222114,211
201311113,843
201418122,571
201535128,042
201642137,769
201730151,385
201830170,707
201940187,334
202040181,415
202167178,928
202278196,883
202383227,930
202487261,581
202587293,907
Table 2.Latvia nationality, top 10 districts, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
RankDistrictLatvia NationalityShare of local foreigners
1Ulsan Dong-gu90.1
2Seoul Yongsan-gu80.1
3Seoul Gwanak-gu40.0
4Seoul Mapo-gu40.0
5Seoul Seongbuk-gu40.0
6Gyeongsangnam-do Geoje-si30.0
7Gyeonggi-do Suwon-si Yeongtong-gu20.0
8Gyeonggi-do Suwon-si Paldal-gu20.0
9Daejeon Dong-gu20.0
10Busan Geumjeong-gu20.0

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

Note: Nationwide, Latvia nationality is 18.3% of all registered foreigners, so a district where the share among its foreigners is above this has relatively many of them.

Table 3.10 districts with the highest location quotient, 2025Unit: people, ratio, %
RankDistrictLatvia NationalityLocation quotient (LQ)Share of local foreigners

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 Latvia nationality, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Visa categoryPersonsShare
Marriage Migration(F6)1921.8
Student(D2)1820.7
Dependent Family(F3)1011.5
General Trainee(D4)910.3
Other statuses(ETC)910.3
Trade Management(D9)78.0
Arts & Entertainment(E6)55.7
Residential(F2)22.3
Other statuses89.2

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

Note: The rows of this table add to 87, the whole of the Latvia nationality.

Table 5.Age and sex, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Age groupTotalMaleFemaleShare
0-40000.0
5-95323.6
10-144222.9
15-199096.5
20-242992020.9
25-292281415.8
30-341921713.7
35-39167911.5
40-4410647.2
45-4910467.2
50-546334.3
55-594222.9
60+5233.6

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

Only this table counts all foreign residents, so it totals 139 rather than the 87 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
20080.012.525.00.00.0
20090.012.016.00.00.0
20100.00.030.00.00.0
20110.014.323.84.84.8
20120.022.713.64.59.1
20139.127.327.30.00.0
201411.138.916.716.70.0
20158.628.68.611.48.6
20169.846.37.37.34.9
201720.033.30.03.36.7
201820.026.70.03.313.3
201920.017.50.00.017.5
202025.010.010.07.512.5
202120.919.411.910.413.4
202220.537.29.03.811.5
202320.527.78.412.09.6
202424.128.79.24.610.3
202521.820.711.510.310.3
Figure 4.Residential segregation and exposure over time, Unit: 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
Table 6.Latvia nationality, mother-tongue compositionUnit: %
First languageShare
Standard Latvian60.9
Russian24.3
Latgalian8.9
Ukrainian1.9
Polish1.8
Lithuanian1.0

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, Latvia 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
    ProvinceLatvia NationalityShare of national
    Seoul3843.7
    Gyeonggi-do1112.6
    Ulsan1011.5
    Daejeon55.7
    Gyeongsangnam-do44.6
    Busan44.6
    Jeollanam-do44.6
    Incheon33.4
    Chungcheongnam-do33.4
    Gangwon-do22.3
    Daegu22.3
    Gyeongsangbuk-do11.1