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Registered foreigners are counted across 192 nationalities.

Moldova

People registered with Moldova nationality number 66, which is less than 0.1% of all registered foreigners and ranks 123 in size. Compared with 49 in 2015, 10 years earlier, that is an increase of about 34.7%. They live in 41 districts, and the largest counts are Gyeonggi-do Anseong-si with 9, Gyeonggi-do Ansan-si Sangnok-gu with 4, and Daejeon Seo-gu with 4. The largest age group is 20-24 at 20.8%, and men are 31.2%. This value alone is based on staying foreigners. Estimated mother tongues are Romanian at 79.7% and Russian at 9.7%.

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
IndicatorsMoldovaAll registered foreignersRelative to total
Registered foreigners661,604,920under 0.1% of the total
Districts of residence4125016.4% 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.Moldova 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
YearMoldovaVietnam
20068052,157
20076167,197
20085279,848
20094186,166
20103198,225
201133110,564
201246114,211
201348113,843
201470122,571
201549128,042
201649137,769
201740151,385
201846170,707
201939187,334
202045181,415
202143178,928
202248196,883
202355227,930
202471261,581
202566293,907
Table 2.Moldova nationality, top 10 districts, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
RankDistrictMoldova NationalityShare of local foreigners
1Gyeonggi-do Anseong-si90.1
2Gyeonggi-do Ansan-si Sangnok-gu40.0
3Daejeon Seo-gu40.1
4Incheon Yeonsu-gu40.0
5Seoul Gwanak-gu30.0
6Gyeonggi-do Goyang-si Ilsandong-gu20.0
7Gyeonggi-do Gunpo-si20.0
8Gyeonggi-do Siheung-si20.0
9Gyeonggi-do Icheon-si20.0
10Gyeonggi-do Pyeongtaek-si20.0

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

Note: Nationwide, Moldova 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, %
RankDistrictMoldova 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 Moldova nationality, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Visa categoryPersonsShare
Marriage Migration(F6)1827.3
Student(D2)1421.2
Visiting Cohabitation(F1)913.6
Dependent Family(F3)57.6
Other statuses(ETC)57.6
Permanent Residence(F5)46.1
Other(G1)46.1
General Trainee(D4)34.5
Other statuses46.1

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

Note: The rows of this table add to 66, the whole of the Moldova nationality.

Table 5.Age and sex, 2025Unit: persons, %
2025
Age groupTotalMaleFemaleShare
0-41101.3
5-91011.3
10-142112.6
15-195416.5
20-241651120.8
25-291421218.2
30-341511419.5
35-394045.2
40-444135.2
45-4985310.4
50-541011.3
55-594315.2
60+2112.6

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

Only this table counts all foreign residents, so it totals 77 rather than the 66 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
20080.05.80.09.63.8
20090.017.14.912.22.4
20100.06.50.012.96.5
20110.012.16.115.26.1
20126.513.00.010.98.7
20138.322.90.08.310.4
20144.324.30.010.05.7
20156.126.50.012.212.2
20164.126.54.18.28.2
201712.537.55.07.510.0
201815.221.76.54.38.7
201925.630.810.30.07.7
202024.428.917.80.02.2
202125.625.618.64.77.0
202222.920.818.84.210.4
202323.625.518.23.612.7
202421.125.414.15.69.9
202527.321.213.67.67.6
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.Moldova nationality, mother-tongue compositionUnit: %
First languageShare
Romanian79.7
Russian9.7
Gagauz4.2
Ukrainian3.9
Bulgarian1.5

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, Moldova 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
    ProvinceMoldova NationalityShare of national
    Gyeonggi-do2943.9
    Seoul913.6
    Incheon710.6
    Daejeon57.6
    Busan34.5
    Chungcheongnam-do34.5
    Gyeongsangnam-do23.0
    Gyeongsangbuk-do23.0
    Jeollabuk-do23.0
    Gwangju11.5
    Daegu11.5
    Ulsan11.5
    Chungcheongbuk-do11.5